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FIRST 



PEIKC IPLE S 



HEW SYSTEM OE PHILOSOPHY. 



BT 

HEKBERT SPENCER, 



AUTHOR OF 



'ILLUSTRATIONS OF UNIVERSAL PROGRESS, "ESSAYS, MORAL, POLITICAL AND ESTHETIC, 

"PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY," "PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGY," " SOCIAL STATICS," 

"EDUCATION," ETC., ETC. 



NEW YORK : 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 

443 & 445 BROADWAY. 
1864. 



<^ U ^ 



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WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 

PUBLISHED BY D. APPLETON & CO. 

EDUCATION— INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND PHYSICAL. 
1 vol. 12mo. Cloth, $1.25. 

ILLUSTRATIONS OF UNIVERSAL PROGRESS; A SERIES 
OF DISCUSSIONS. Large 12mo. 470 pages. Cloth, $1.75. 

PRINCIPLES OF BIOL OCT. In Quarterly Parts, by Subscription. 
$2.00 per year. 

Now m pbess : 

ESSAYS— MORAL, POLITICAL, AND ^ESTHETIC. 1 vol., 

large 12mo. Cloth. 

TEE CLASSIFICATION OF TEE SCIENCES ; to which are added 
Reasons for Dissenting from the Philosophy of M. Comte. 

Copies sent oy mail, postpaid, on receipt of price. 



Enteeed, according to Act of Congress, in the year '1864, by 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of 

New York. 



2- U 2 ■ V 



r : 






PKEFACE 

TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 



The present volume is the first of a series designed to un 
fold the principles of a new philosophy. It is divided into two 
parts : the aim of the first being to determine the true sphere 
of all rational investigation, and of the second, to elucidate 
those fundamental and universal principles which science has 
established within that sphere, and which are to constitute the 
basis of the system. The scheme of truth developed in these 
First Principles is complete in itself, and has its independent 
value ; but it is designed by the author to serve for guidance 
and verification in the construction of the succeeding and larger 
portions of his philosophic plan. 

Having presented in his introductory volume so much of 
the general principles of Physics as is essential to the develop- 
ment of his method, Mr. Spencer enters upon the subject of 
Organic nature. The second work of the series is to be the 
Principles of Biology — a systematic statement of the facts and 
laws which constitute the Science of Life. It is not to be an 
encyclopedic and exhaustive treatise upon this vast subject, 
but such a compendious presentation of its data and general 
principles as shall interpret the method of nature, afford a 
clear understanding of the questions involved, and prepare for 
further inquiries. This work is now published in quarterly 
numbers, of from 80 to 96 pages. Four of these parts have 
already appeared, and some idea of the course and character 



IV PREFACE. 

of the discussion may be formed by observing the titles to the 
chapters, which are as follows : 

Part First : I. Organic Matter ; II. The Actions of Forces 
on Organic Matter ; III. The Reactions of Organic Matter on 
Forces ; IV. Proximate Definition of Life ; V. The Correspond- 
ence between Life and its Circumstances; VI. The Degree 
of Life varies with the Degree of Correspondence; VII. 
Scope of Biology. Part Second : I. Growth ; II. Develop- 
ment ; III. Function ; IV. Waste and Repair ; V. Adaptation ; 
VI. Individuality; VII. Genesis; VIII. Heredity; IX. Varia- 
tion ; X. Genesis, Heredity, and Variation ; XI. Classification ; 
XII. Distribution. 

The Principles of Biology will be followed by the Princi- 
ples of Psychology ; that is, Mr. Spencer will pass from the 
consideration of Life to the study of Mind. This subject will 
be regarded in the light of the great truths of Biology pre- 
viously established ; the connections of life and mind will be 
traced ; the evolution of the intellectual faculties in their due 
succession, and in correspondence with the conditions of the 
environment, will be unfolded, and the whole subject of mind 
will be treated, not by the narrow metaphysical methods, but 
in its broadest aspect, as a phase of nature's order which can 
only be comprehended in the light of her universal plan. 

The fourth work of the series is Sociology, or the science 
of human relations. As a multitude is but an assemblage of 
units, and as the characteristics of a multitude result from the 
properties of its units, so social phenomena are consequences 
of the natures of individual men. Biology and Psychology 
are the two great keys to the knowledge of human nature ; 
and hence from these Mr. Spencer naturally passes to the sub- 
ject of Social Science. The growth of society, the conditions 
of its intellectual and moral progress, the development of its 
various activities and organizations, will be here described, and 
a statement made of those principles which are essential to 
the successful regulation of social aflTairs. 

Lastly, in Part Fifth, Mr. Spencer proposes to consider the 
Principles of Morality. The truths furnished by Biology, Psy- 
chology, and Sociology will be here brought to bear, to deter- 



he 

;es 



PEEFACE. V 

mine correct rules of human action, the principles of private 
and public justice, and to form a true theory of right living. 

The reader will obtain a more just idea of the extent and pro- 
portions of Mr. Spencer's philosophic plan, by consulting his 
prospectus at the close of the volume. It will be seen to 
embrace a wide range of topics, but in the present work, and 
in his profound and original volumes on the "Principles of 
Psychology " and " Social Statics," as also throughout his 
numerous Essays and Discussions, we discover that he has 
already traversed almost the entire field, while to elaborate the 
whole into one connected and organized philosophical scheme, 
is a work well suited to his bold and comprehensive genius. 
With a metaphysical acuteness equalled only by his immense 
grasp of the results of physical science — alike remarkable 
for his profound analysis, constructive ability, and power of 
lucid and forcible statement, Mr. Spencer has rare endow- 
ments for the task he has undertaken, and can hardly fail to 
embody in his system the largest scientific and philosophical 
tendencies of the age. 

As the present volume is a working out of universal prin- 
ciples to be subsequently applied, it is probably of a more ab- 
stract character than will be the subsequent works of the 
series. The discussions strike down to the profoundest basis 
of human thought, and involve the deepest questions upon 
which the intellect of man has entered. Those unaccustomed 
to close metaphysical reasoning, may therefore find parts of 
the argument not easy to follow, although it is here pre- 
sented with a distinctness and a vigor to be found perhaps in no 
other author. Still, the chief portions of the book may be read 
by all with ease and pleasure, while no one can fail to be re- 
paid for the persistent effort that may be required to master 
the entire argument. All who have sufficient earnestness 
of nature to take interest in those transcendent questions 
which are now occupying the most advanced minds of the age, 
will find them here considered with unsurpassed clearness, 
originality, and power. 

The invigorating influence of philosophical studies upon 
the mind, and their consequent educational value, have been 






VI PREFACE. 

long recognized. In this point of view the system here pre- 
sented has high claims upon the young men of our country, — 
embodying as it does the latest and largest results of positive 
science ; organizing its facts and principles upon a natural meth- 
od, which places them most perfectly in command of memory ; 
and converging all its lines of inquiry to the end of a high prac- 
tical beneficence, — the unfolding of those laws of nature and 
human nature which determine personal welfare and the social 
polity. Earnest and reverent in temper, cautious in statement, 
severely logical and yet presenting his views in a transparent 
and attractive style which combines the precision of science 
with many of the graces of lighter composition, it is believed 
that the thorough study of Spencer's philosophical scheme would 
combine, in an unrivalled degree, those prime requisites of the 
highest education, a knowledge of the truths which it is most 
important for man to know, and that salutary discipline of the 
mental faculties which results from their systematic acquisition. 
"We say the young men of our country, for if we are not 
mistaken, it is here that Mr. Spencer is to find his largest 
and fittest audience. There is something in the bold hand- 
ling of his questions, in his earnest and fearless appeal to first 
principles, and in the practical availability of his conclusions, 
which is eminently suited to the genius of our people. It has 
been so in a marked sense with his work on Education, and there 
is no reason why it should not be so in an equal degree with his 
other writings. They betray a profound sympathy with the 
best spirit of our institutions, and that noble aspiration for the 
welfare and improvement of society which can hardly fail to 
commend them to the more liberal and enlightened portions 
of the American public. 



CONTENTS. 



PAKT I.— THE UNKNOWABLE. 



CHAP. 

I. — RELIGION AND SCIENCE 

II. ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS . . 

III. — ULTIMATE SCIENTIEIC IDEAS .. 

IY. — THE RELATIVITY OE ALL KNOWLEDGE 

V. — THE RECONCILIATION 



PAGE 

3 
25 

47 
68 
98 



PAET II.— LAWS OP THE KNOWABLE. 

I. — LAWS IN GENERAL . . . . . . . . 127 

II. — THE LAW OE EYOLUTION . . . . . . 146 

III. — THE LAW OE EYOLUTION (CONTINUED) . . . . 175 

IY THE CAUSES OE EYOLUTION . . . . . . 219 

Y. SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND EORCE .. 224 

VI. — THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OE MATTER . . . . 238 

YII THE CONTINUITY OE MOTION . . . . . . 246 

VIII. — THE PERSISTENCE OE EORCE . . . . . . 251 

IX. THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OE EORCES 259 



Vlll 



CONTENTS. 



^1 



CHAP. 

X THE DIRECTION OE MOTION 

XI THE RHYTHM OE MOTION 

XII THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO ETOLTJTION 

XIII. — THE INSTABILITY OE THE HOMOGENEOUS 

XIY. THE MULTIPLICATION OE EEEECTS 

XY. — DIEEEEENTIATION AND INTE ORATION . . 

XYI. — EQUILIBRATION 

XYII. — SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 



PAGE 

286 
313 
335 
358 
388 
416 
440 
487 




PART I. 

THE UNKNOWABLE 



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CHAPTER I. 

RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 

§ 1. "We too often forget that not only is there " a soul of 
goodness in things evil," but very generally also, a soul of 
truth in things erroneous. While many admit the abstract 
probability that a falsity has usually a nucleus of reality, few 
bear this abstract probability in mind, when passing judg- 
ment on the opinions of others. A belief that is finally 
proved to be grossly at variance with fact, is cast aside with 
indignation or contempt ; and in the heat of antagonism 
scarcely any one inquires what there was in this belief which 
commended it to men's minds. Yet there must have been 
something. And there is reason to suspect that this some- 
thing was its correspondence with certain of their experiences : 
an extremely limited or vague correspondence perhaps ; but 
still, a correspondence. Even the absurdest report may in 
nearly every instance be traced to an actual occurrence ; and 
had there been no such actual occurrence, this preposterous 
misrepresentation of it would never have existed. Though 
the distorted or magnified image transmitted to us through 
the refracting medium of rumour, is utterly unlike the reality ; 
yet in the absence of the reality there would have been no 
distorted or magnified image. And thus it is with human 
beliefs in general. Entirely wrong as they may appear, the 
implication is that they germinated out of actual experiences 
— originally contained, and perhaps still contain, some small 
amount of verity. 



4 RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 

More especially may we safely assume this, in the case of 
beliefs that have long existed and are widely diffused ; and 
most of all so, in the case of beliefs that are perennial and 
nearly or quite universal. The presumption that any current 
opinion is not wholly false, gains in strength according to the 
number of its adherents. Admitting, as we must, that life is 
impossible unless through a certain agreement between in- 
ternal convictions and external circumstances ; admitting 
therefore that the probabilities are always in favour of the 
truth, or at least the partial truth, of a conviction ; we must 
admit that the convictions entertained by many minds in 
common are the most likely to have some foundation. The 
elimination of individual errors of thought, must give to 
the resulting judgment a certain additional value. It 
may indeed be urged that many widely-spread beliefs 
are received on authority ; that those entertaining them 
make no attempts at verification ; and hence it may be in- 
ferred that the multitude of adherents adds but little to the 
probability of a belief. But this is not true. For a belief 
which gains extensive reception without critical examination, 
is thereby proved to have a general congruity with the various 
other beliefs of those who receive it ; and in so far as these 
various other beliefs are based upon personal observation and 
judgment, they give an indirect warrant to one with which 
they harmonize. It may be that this warrant is of small 
value ; but still it is of some value. 

Could we reach definite views on this matter, they would 
be extremely useful to us. It is important that we should, if 
possible, form something like a general theory of current 
opinions ; so that we may neither over-estimate nor under- 
estimate their worth. Arriving at correct judgments on dis- 
puted questions, much depends on the attitude of mind we 
preserve while listening to, or taking part in, the controversy ; 
and for the preservation of a right attitude, it is needful that 
we should learn how true, and yet how untrue, are average 
human beliefs. On the one hand, we must keep free from 



RELIGION AND SCIENCE. , 5 

that bias in favour of received ideas which expresses itself in 
such dogmas as " What every one says must be true/' or 
" The voice of the people is the voice of Grod." On the other 
hand, the fact disclosed by a survey of the past, that majorities 
have usually been wrong, must not blind us to the comple- 
mentary fact, that majorities have usually not been entirely 
wrong. And the avoidance of these extremes being a pre- 
requisite to catholic thinking, we shall do well to provide 
ourselves with a safe- guard against them, by making a valua- 
tion of opinions in the abstract. To this end we must con- 
template the kind of relation that ordinarily subsists between 
opinions and facts. Let us do so with one of those beliefs 
which under various forms has prevailed among all nations in 
all times. 

§ 2. The earliest traditions represent rulers as gods or 
demigods. By their subjects, primitive kings were regarded 
as superhuman in origin, and superhuman in power. They 
possessed divine titles ; received obeisances like those made 
before the altars of deities ; and were in some cases actually 
worshipped. If there needs proof that the divine and half- 
divine characters originally ascribed to monarchs were 
ascribed literally, we have it in the fact that there are still 
existing savage races, among whom it is held that the chiefs 
and their kindred are of celestial origin, or, as elsewhere, that 
only the chiefs have souls. And of course along with beliefs 
of this kind, there existed a belief in the unlimited power of 
the ruler over his subjects — an absolute possession of them, 
extending even to the taking of their lives at will : as even 
still in Fiji, where a victim stands unbound to be killed at the 
word of his chief; himself declaring, " whatever the king says 
must be done." N 

In times and among races somewhat less barbarous, we find 
these beliefs a little modified. The monarch, instead of being 
literally thought god or demigod, is conceived to be a man 
having divine authority, with perhaps more or less of divine 



6 RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 

nature. He retains however, as in the East to the present 
day, titles expressing his heavenly descent or relationships ; 
and is still sainted in forms and words as humble as those ad- 
dressed to the Deity. While the lives and properties of his 
people, if not practically so completely at his mercy, are still 
in theory supposed to be his. 

Later in the progress of civilization, as during the middle 
ages in Europe, the current opinions respecting the relation- 
ship of rulers and ruled are further changed. For the theory 
of divine origin, there is substituted that of divine right. ~No 
longer god or demigod, or even god-descended, the king is 
now regarded as simply God's vice-gerent. The obeisances 
made to him are not so extreme in their humility ; and his 
sacred titles lose much of their meaning. Moreover his 
authority ceases to be unlimited. Subjects deny his right to 
dispose at will of their lives and properties ; and yield alle- 
giance only in the shape of obedience to his commands. 

With advancing political opinion has come still greater 
restriction of imperial power. Belief in the supernatural 
character of the ruler, long ago repudiated by ourselves for 
example, has left behind it nothing more than the popular 
tendency to ascribe unusual goodness, wisdom, and beauty to 
the monarch. Loyalty, which originally meant implicit sub- 
mission to the king's will, now means a merely nominal pro- 
fession of subordination, and the fulfilment of certain forms of 
respect. Our political practice, and our political theory, alike 
utterly reject those regal prerogatives which once passed un- 
questioned. By deposing some, and putting others in their 
places, we have not only denied the divine rights of certain 
men to rule ; but we have denied that they have any rights 
beyond those originating in the assent of the nation. Though 
our forms of speech and our state-documents still assert the 
subjection of the citizens to the ruler, our actual beliefs and 
our daily proceedings implicitly assert the contrary. We 
obey no laws save those of our own making. We have entirely 
divested the monarch of legislative power; and should im- 



RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 7 

mediately rebel against his or her exercise of such power, 
even in matters of the smallest concern. In brief, the abo- 
riginal doctrine is all but extinct among us. 

Nor has the rejection of primitive political beliefs, resulted 
only in transferring the authority of an autocrat to a repre- 
sentative body. The views entertained respecting govern- 
ments in general, of whatever form, are now widely different 
from those once entertained. Whether popular or despotic, 
governments were in ancient times supposed to have unlimited 
authority over their subjects. Individuals existed for the 
benefit of the State ; not the State for the benefit of in- 
dividuals. In our days, however, not only has the national will 
been in many cases substituted for the will of the king ; but 
the exercise of this national will has been restricted to a much 
smaller sphere. In England, for instance, though there has 
been established no definite theory setting bounds to govern- 
mental authority ; yet, in practice, sundry bounds have been 
set to it which are tacitly recognized by all. There is no 
organic law formally declaring that the legislature may not 
freely dispose of the citizens' lives, as early kings did when 
they sacrificed hecatombs of victims ; but were it possible for 
our legislature to attempt such a thing, its own destruction 
would be the consequence, rather than the destruction of 
citizens. How entirely we have established the personal 
liberties of the subject against the invasions of State-power, 
would be quickly demonstrated, were it proposed by Act of 
Parliament forcibly to take possession of the nation, or of any 
class, and turn its services to public ends ; as the services of 
the people were turned by primitive rulers. And should any 
statesman suggest a re-distribution of property such as was 
sometimes made in ancient democratic communities, he would 
be met by a thousand-tongued denial of imperial power over 
individual possessions. Not only in our day have these funda- 
mental claims of the citizen been thus made good against the 
State, but sundry minor claims likewise. Ages ago, laws 
regulating dress and mode of living fell into disuse; and 






8 RELIGION AND SCIENCE 

any attempt to revive them would prove the current opinion 
to be, that such matters lie beyond the sphere of legal control. 
For some centuries we have been asserting in practice, and 
have now established in theory, the right of every man to 
choose his own religious beliefs, instead of receiving such 
beliefs on State- authority. Within the last few generations 
we have inaugurated complete liberty of speech, in spite of all 
legislative attempts to suppress or limit it. And still more 
recently we have claimed and finally obtained under a few 
exceptional restrictions, freedom to trade with whomsoever we 
please. Thus our political beliefs are widely different from 
ancient ones, not only as to the proper depositary of power to 
be exercised over a nation, but also as to the extent of that 
power. 

Not even here has the change ended. Besides the average 
opinions which we have just described as current among 
ourselves, there exists a less widely- diffused opinion going 
still further in the same direction. There are to be found 
men who contend that the sphere of government should be 
narrowed even more than it is in England. The modern 
doctrine that the State exists for the benefit of citizens, which 
has now in a great measure supplanted the ancient doctrine 
that the citizens exist for the benefit of the State, they would 
push to its logical results. They hold that the freedom of the 
individual, limited only by the like freedom of other individ- 
uals, is sacred ; and that the legislature cannot equitably put 
further restrictions upon it, either by forbidding any actions 
which the law of equal freedom permits, or taking away any 
property save that required to pay the cost of enforcing this 
law itself. They assert that the sole function of the State is 
the protection of persons against each other, and against a 
foreign foe. They urge that as, throughout civilization, the 
manifest tendency has been continually to extend the liberties 
of the subject, and restrict the functions of the State, there is 
reason to believe that the ultimate political condition must be 
one in which personal freedom is the greatest possible and 






RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 9 

governmental power the least possible : that, namely, in which 
the freedom of each has no limit but the like freedom of all ; 
while the sole governmental duty is the maintenance of this 
limit. 

Here then in different times and places we find concerning 
the origin, authority, and functions of government, a great 
variety of opinions — opinions of which the leading genera 
above indicated subdivide into countless species. What now 
must be said about the truth or falsity of these opinions? 
Save among a few barbarous tribes the notion that a monarch 
is a god or demigod is regarded throughout the world as an 
absurdity almost passing the bounds- of human credulity. 
In but few places does there survive a vague notion that the 
ruler possesses any supernatural attributes. Most civilized 
communities, which still admit the divine right of govern- 
ments, have long since repudiated the divine right of kings. 
Elsewhere the belief that there is anything sacred in legis- 
lative regulations is dying out : laws are coming to be con- 
sidered as conventional only. While the extreme school 
holds that governments have neither intrinsic author- 
ity, nor can have authority given to them by convention ; 
but can possess authority only as the administrators of those 
moral principles deducible from the conditions essential to 
social life. Of these various beliefs, with their innumerable 
modifications, must we then say that some one alone is 
wholly right and all the rest wholly wrong ; or must we say 
that each of them contains truth more or less completely 
disguised by errors ? The latter alternative is the one which 
analysis will force upon us. Ridiculous as they may severally 
appear to those not educated under them, every one of these 
doctrines has for its vital element the recognition of an 
unquestionable fact. Directly or by implication, each of 
them insists on a certain subordination of individual actions 
to social requirements. There are wide differences as to the 
power to which this subordination is due; there are wide 
differences as to the motive for this subordination ; there are 
2* 



^ 1 



10 RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 

wide differences as to its extent ; but that there must be some 
subordination all are agreed. From the oldest and rudest 
idea of allegiance, down to the most advanced political theory 
of our own day, there is on this point complete unanimity. 
Though, between the savage who conceives his life and 
property to be at the absolute disposal of his chief, and the 
anarchist who denies the right of any government, autocratic 
or democratic, to trench upon his individual freedom, there 
seems at first sight an entire and irreconcileable antagonism ; 
yet ultimate analysis discloses in them this fundamental com- 
munity of opinion ; that there are limits which individual 
actions may not transgress — limits which the one regards as 
originating in the king's will, and which the other regards as 
deducible from the equal claims of fellow- citizens. 

It may perhaps at first sight seem that we here reach a 
very unimportant conclusion ; namely, that a certain tacit 
assumption is equally implied in all these conflicting political 
creeds — an assumption which is indeed of self-evident 
validity. The question, however, is not the value or novelty 
of the particular truth in this case arrived at. My aim has 
been to exhibit the more general truth, which we are apt to 
overlook, that between the most opposite beliefs there is 
usually something in common, — something taken for granted 
by each ; and that this something, if not to be set down 
as an unquestionable , verity, may yet be considered to 
have the highest degree of probability. A postulate which, 
like the one above instanced, is not consciously asserted but 
unconsciously involved ; and which is unconsciously involved 
not by one man or body of men, but by numerous bodies of 
men who diverge in countless ways and degrees in the rest of 
their beliefs ; has a warrant^ far transcending any that can be 
usually shown. And when, as in this case, the postulate is 
abstract — is not based on some one concrete experience 
common to all mankind, but implies an induction from a 
great variety of experiences, we may say that it ranks next in 
certainty to the postulates of exact science. 






RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 11 



Do we not thus arrive at a generalization which may habit- 
ually guide us when seeking for the soul of truth in things 
erroneous ? While the foregoing illustration brings clearly 
home the fact, that in opinions seeming to be absolutely and 
supremely wrong something right is yet to be found ; it also 
indicates the method we should pursue in seeking the some- 
thing right. This method is to compare all opinions of the 
same genus; to set aside as more or less discrediting one 
another those various special and concrete elements in which 
such opinions disagree ; to observe what remains after the 
discordant constituents have been eKminated; and to find 
for this remaining constituent that abstract expression which 
holds true throughout its divergent modifications. 

§ 3. A candid acceptance of this general principle and an 
adoption of the course it indicates, will greatly aid us in deal- 
ing with those chronic antagonisms by which men are 
divided. Applying it not only to current ideas with which 
we are personally unconcerned, but also to our own ideas and 
those of our opponents, we shall be led to form far more 
correct judgments. We shall be ever ready to suspect that 
the convictions we entertain are not wholly right, and that 
the adverse convictions are not wholly wrong. On the one 
hand we shall not, in common with the great mass of the 
unthinking, let our beliefs be determined by the mere accident 
of birth in a particular age on a particular part of the Earth's 
surface ; and, on the other hand, we shall be saved from that 
error of entire and contemptuous negation, which is fallen 
into by most who take'up an attitude of independent criticism. 

Of all antagonisms of belief, the oldest, the widest, the most 
profound and the most important, is that between Religion 
and Science. It commenced when the recognition of the 
simplest uniformities in surrounding things, set a limit to the 
previously universal fetishism. It shows itself everywhere 
throughout the domain of human knowledge : affecting men's 
interpretations alike of the simplest mechanical accidents and 



12 RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 

of the most complicated events in the histories of nations. 
It has its roots deep down in the diverse habits of thought of 
different orders of minds. And the conflicting conceptions of 
nature and life which these diverse habits of thought severally 
generate, influence for good or ill the tone of feeling and the 
daily conduct. 

An unceasing battle of opinion like this which has been 
carried on throughout all ages under the banners of Religion 
and Science, has of course generated an animosity fatal to a 
just estimate of either party by the other. On a larger scale, 
and more intensely than any other controversy, has it illus- 
trated that perennially significant fable concerning the knights 
who fought about the colour of a shield of which neither 
looked at more than one face. Each combatant seeing clearly 
his own aspect of the question, has charged his opponent 
with stupidity or dishonesty in not seeing the same aspect of 
it ; while each has wanted the candour to go over to his 
opponent's side and find out how it was that he saw every- 
thing so differently. 

Happily the times display an increasing catholicity of feel- 
ing, which we shall do well in carrying as far as our natures 
permit. In proportion as we love truth more and victory 
less, we shall become anxious to know what it is which leads 
our opponents to think as they do. We shall begin to suspect 
that the pertinacity of belief exhibited by them must result 
from a perception of something we have not perceived. And 
we shall aim to supplement the portion of truth we have 
found with the portion found by them. Making a more 
rational estimate of human authority, we shall avoid alike the 
extremes of undue submission and undue rebellion — shall not 
regard some men's judgments as wholly good and others as 
wholly bad ; but shall rather lean to the more defensible 
position that none are completely right and none are com- 
pletely wrong. 

Preserving, as far as may be, this impartial attitude, let us 
then contemplate the two sides of this great controversy. 



RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 13 

Keeping guard against the bias of education and shutting out 
the whisperings of sectarian feeling, let us consider what are 
the a priori probabilities in favour of each party. 

§ 4. When duly realized, the general principle above 
illustrated must lead us to anticipate that the diverse forms 
of religious belief which have existed and which still exist, 
have all a basis in some ultimate fact. Judging by analogy 
the implication is, not that any one of them is altogether 
right ; but that in each there is something right more or less 
disguised by other things wrong. It may be that the soul of 
truth contained in erroneous creeds is very unlike most, if not 
all, of its several embodiments ; and indeed, if, as we have good 
reason to expect, it is much more abstract than any of them, 
its unlikeness necessarily follows. But however different 
from its concrete expressions, some essential verity must be 
looked for. To suppose that these multiform conceptions 
should be one and all absolutely groundless, discredits too 
profoundly that average human intelligence from which all 
our individual intelligences are inherited. 

This most general reason we shall find enforced by other 
more special ones. To the presumption that a number of 
diverse beliefs of the same class have some common founda- 
tion in fact, must in this case be added a further presumption 
derived from the omnipresence of the beliefs. Religious ideas 
of one kind or other are almost if not quite universal. Even 
should it be true, as alleged, that there exist tribes of men 
who have nothing approaching to a theory of creation — even 
should it be true that only when a certain phase of intelligence 
is reached do the most rudimentary of such theories make their 
appearance; the implication is practically the same. Grant that 
among all races who have passed a certain stage of intellectual 
development there are found vague notions concerning the 
origin and hidden nature of surrounding things ; and there 
arises the inference that such notions are necessary products 
of progressing intelligence. Their endless variety serves but 



' 



14 RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 

to strengthen this conclusion : showing as it does a more or 
less independent genesis — showing how, in different places 
and times, like conditions have led to similar trains of 
thought, ending in analogous results. That these countless 
different, and yet allied, phenomena presented by all religions 
are accidental or factitious, is an untenable supposition. A 
candid examination of the evidence quite negatives the doc- 
trine maintained by some, that creeds are priestly inventions. 
Even as a mere question of probabilities it cannot rationally 
be concluded that in every society, past and present, savage 
and civilized, certain members of the community have com- 

^bined to delude the rest, in ways so analogous. To any who 
may allege that some primitive fiction was devised by some 
primitive priesthood, before yet mankind had diverged from 
a common centre, a reply is furnished by philology ; for 
philology proves the dispersion of mankind to have com- 
menced before there existed a language sufficiently organized 
to express religious ideas. Moreover, were it otherwise tenable, 
the hypothesis of artificial origin fails to account for the facts. 
It does not explain why, under all changes of form, certain 
elements of religious belief remain constant. * It does not 
show us how it happens that while adverse criticism has from 
age to age gone on destroying particular theological dogmas, 
it has not destroyed the fundamental conception underlying 
these dogmas. It leaves us without any solution of the strik- 
ing circumstance that when, from the absurdities and cor- 
ruptions accumulated around them, national creeds have 
fallen into general discredit, ending in indifferentism or 
positive denial, there has always by and by arisen a re-asser- 
tion of them : if not the same in form, still the same in 
essence. Thus the universality of religious ideas, their in- 
dependent evolution among different primitive races, and 
their great vitality, unite in showing that their source must 
be deep-seated instead of superficial. In other words, we 
are obliged to admit that if not supernaturally derived as 



RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 15 

the majority contend, they must be derived out of human 
experiences, slowly accumulated and organized. 

Should it be asserted that religious ideas are products of 
the religious sentiment, which, to satisfy itself, prompts 
imaginations that it afterwards projects into the external 
world, and by and by mistakes for realities ; the problem is 
not solved, but only removed further back. "Whether the 
wish is father to the thought, or whether sentiment and idea 
have a common genesis, there equally arises the question — 
Whence comes the sentiment ? That it is a constituent in 
man's nature is implied by the hypothesis ; and cannot in- 
deed be denied by those who prefer other hypotheses. And 
if the religious sentiment, displayed habitually by the majority 
of mankind, and occasionally aroused even in those seemingly 
devoid of it, must be classed among human emotions, we 
cannot rationally ignore it. "We are bound to ask its origin 
and its function. Here is an attribute which, to say the least, 
has had an enormous influence — which has played a con- 
spicuous part throughout the entire past as far back as 
history records, and is at present the life of numerous insti- 
tutions, the stimulus to perpetual controversies, and the 
prompter of countless daily actions. Any Theory of Things 
which takes no account of this attribute, must, then, be ex- 
tremely defective. If with no other view, still as a question 
in philosophy, we are called on to say what this attribute 
means; and we cannot decline the task without confessing 
our philosophy to be incompetent. 

Two suppositions only are open to us : the one that the 
feeling which responds to religious ideas resulted, along with 
all other human faculties, from an act of special creation ; the 
other that it, in common with the rest, arose by a process of 
evolution. If we adopt the first of these alternatives, uni- 
versally accepted by our ancestors and by the immense 
majority of our contemporaries, the matter is at once settled : 
man is directly endowed with the religious feeling by a 






16 RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 

creator; and to that creator it designedly responds. If we 
adopt the second alternative, then we are met by the questions 
— What are the circumstances to which the genesis of the re- 
ligious feeling is due ? and — What is its office ? We are bound 
to entertain these questions ; and we are bound to find 
answers to them. Considering all faculties, as we must on 
this supposition, to result from accumulated modifications 
caused by the intercourse of the organism with its environ- 
ment, we are obliged to admit that there exist in the environ- 
ment certain phenomena or conditions which have determined 
the growth of the feeling in question ; and so are obliged to 
admit that it is as normal as any other faculty. Add to 
which that as, on the hypothesis of a development of lower 
forms into higher, the end towards which the progressive 
changes directly or indirectly tend, must be adaptation to 
the requirements of existence; we are also forced to infer 
that this feeling is in some way conducive to human welfare. 
Thus both alternatives contain the same ultimate implication. 
We must conclude that the religious sentiment is either di- 
rectly created, or is created by the slow action of natural 
causes ; and whichever of these conclusions we adopt, requires 
us to treat the religious sentiment with respect. 

One other consideration should not be overlooked — a con- 
sideration which students of Science more especially need to 
. have pointed out. Occupied as such are with established truths, 
and accustomed to regard things not already known as things 
to be hereafter discovered, they are liable to forget that in- 
formation, however extensive it may become, can never satisfy 
inquiry. Positive knowledge does not, and never can, fill 
the whole region of possible thought. At the uttermost 
reach of discovery there arises, and must ever arise, the ques- 
tion — What lies beyond ? As it is impossible to think of a 
limit to space so as to exclude the idea of space lying outside 
that limit ; so we cannot conceive of any explanation profound 
enough to exclude the question — What is the explanation of 
that explanation ? Regarding Science as a gradually increas- 



RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 17 

ing sphere, we may say that every addition to its surface 
does but bring it into wider contact with surrounding nescience. 
There must ever remain therefore two antithetical modes of 
mental action. Throughout all future time, as now, the 
human mind may occupy itself, not only with ascertained 
phenomena and their relations, but also with that un- 
ascertained something which phenomena and their rela- 
tions imply. Hence if knowledge cannot monopolize 
consciousness — if it must always continue possible for the 
mind to dwell upon that which transcends knowledge ; then 
there can never cease to be a place for something of the 
nature of Religion ; since Religion under all its forms is dis- 
tinguished from everything else in this, that its subject 
matter is that which passes the sphere of experience. 

Thus, however untenable may be any or all the existing 
religious creeds, however gross the absurdities associated with 
them, however irrational the arguments set forth in their de- 
fence, we must not ignore the verity which in all likelihood 
lies hidden within them. The general probability that widely- 
spread beliefs are not absolutely baseless, is in this case en- 
forced by a further probability due to the omnipresence of 
the beliefs. In the existence of a religious sentiment, what- 
ever be its origin, we have a second evidence of great signifi- 
cance. And as in that nescience which must ever remain the 
antithesis to science, there is a sphere for the exercise of this 
sentiment, we find a third general fact of like implication. 
We may be sure therefore that religions, though even none 
of them be actually true, are yet all adumbrations of a truth. 

§ 5. As, to the religious, it will seem absurd to set forth 
any justification for Religion ; so, to the scientific, will it seem 
absurd to defend Science. Yet to do the last is certainly as 
needful as to do the first. If there exists a class who, in 
contempt of its follies and disgust at its corruptions, have 
contracted towards Religion a repugnance which makes them 
overlook the fundamental verity contained in it ; so, too, is 



18 RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 

there a class offended to such, a degree by the destructive 
criticisms men of science make on the religious tenets they 
regard as essential, that they have acquired a strong prejudice 
against Science in general. They are not prepared with any 
avowed reasons for their dislike. They have simply a re- 
membrance of the rude shakes which Science has given to 
many of their cherished convictions, and a suspicion that it 
may perhaps eventually uproot all they regard as sacred ; and 
hence it produces in them a certain inarticulate dread. 

What is Science ? To see the absurdity of the prejudice 
against it, we need only remark that Science is simply a 
higher development of common knowledge ; and that if 
Science is repudiated, all knowledge must be repudiated 
along with it. The extremest bigot will not suspect any 
harm in the observation that the sun rises earlier and sets 
later in the summer than in the winter ; but will rather 
consider such an observation as a useful aid in fulfilling the 
. duties of life. Well, Astronomy is an organized body of 
similar observations, made with greater nicety, extended to a 
larger number of objects, and so analyzed as to disclose the 
real arrangements of the heavens, and to dispel our false con- 
ceptions of them. That iron will rust in water, that wood 
will burn, that long kept viands become putrid, the most 
timid sectarian will teach without alarm, as things useful to 
be known. But these are chemical truths : Chemistry is a 
systematized collection of such facts, ascertained with pre- 
cision, and so classified and generalized as to enable us to say 
with certainty, concerning each simple or compound substance, 
what change will occur in it under given conditions. And 
thus is it with all the sciences. They severally germinate 
out of the experiences of daily life ; insensibly as they grow 
they draw in remoter, more numerous, and more complex 
experiences ; and among these, they ascertain laws of de- 
pendence like those which make up our knowledge of the 
most familiar objects. Nowhere is it possible to draw a line 
and say — here Science begins. And as it is the function of 



RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 19 

common observation to serve for the guidance of conduct ; so, 
too, is the guidance of conduct the office of the most recondite 
and abstract inquiries of Science. Through the countless in- 
dustrial processes and the various modes of locomotion which 
it has given to us, Physics regulates more completely our social 
life than does his acquaintance with the properties of sur- 
rounding bodies regulate the life of the savage. Anatomy 
and Physiology, through their effects on the practice of medi- 
cine and hygiene, modify our actions almost as much as does 
our acquaintance with the evils and benefits which common 
environing agencies may produce on our bodies. All Science 
is prevision ; and all prevision ultimately aids us in greater or 
less degree to achieve the good and avoid the bad. As 
certainly as the perception of an object lying in our path 
warns us against stumbling over it ; so certainly do those 
more complicated and subtle perceptions which constitute 
Science, warn us against stumbling over intervening obstacles 
in the pursuit of our distant ends. Thus being one in origin 
and function, the simplest forms of cognition and the most 
complex must be dealt with alike. We are bound in con- 
sistency to receive the widest knowledge which our faculties 
can reach, or to reject along with it that narrow knowledge 
possessed by all. There is no logical alternative between 
accepting our intelligence in its entirety, or repudiating even 
that lowest intelligence which we possess in common with 
brutes. 

To ask the question which moje immediately concerns our 
argument — whether Science is substantially true ? — is much 
like asking whether the sun gives light. And it is because 
they are conscious how undeniably valid are most of its proposi- 
tions, that the theological party regard Science with so much 
secret alarm. They know that during the two thousand 
years of its growth, some of its larger divisions — mathe- 
matics, physics, astronomy — have been subject to the ri- 
gorous criticism of successive generations ; and have notwith- 
standing become ever more firmly established. They know 



.#\ 



20 RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 

that, unlike many of their own doctrines, which were once 
universally received but have age by age been more 
frequently called in question, the doctrines of Science, at first 
confined to a few scattered inquirers, have been slowly grow- 
ing into general acceptance, and are now in great part ad- 
mitted as beyond dispute. They know that men of science 
throughout the world subject each other's results to the most 
searching examination ; and that error is mercilessly exposed 
and rejected as soon as discovered. And, finally, they know 
that still more conclusive testimony is to be found in the 
daily verification of scientific predictions, and in the never- 
ceasing triumphs of those arts which Science guides. 

To regard with alienation that which has such high 
credentials is a folly. Though in the tone which many of 
the scientific adopt towards them, the defenders of Religion 
may find some excuse for this alienation; yet the excuse is a 
very insufficient one. On the side of Science, as on their own 
side, they must admit that short- comings in the advocates do 
not tell essentially against that which is advocated. Science 
must be judged by itself : and so judged, only the most per- 
verted intellect can fail to see that it is worthy of all reverence. 
Be there or be there not any other revelation, we have a 
veritable revelation in Science — a continuous disclosure, 
through the intelligence with which we are endowed, of the 
established order of the Universe. This disclosure it is the 
duty of every one to verify as far as in him lies ; and having 
verified, to receive with all humility. 

§ 6. On both sides of this great controversy, then, truth 
must exist. An unbiassed consideration of its general aspects 
forces us to conclude that Religion, everywhere present as a 
weft running through the warp of human history, expresses 
some eternal fact ; while it is almost a truism to say of Science 
that it is an organised mass of facts, ever growing, and ever 
being more completely purified from errors. And if both 
have bases in the reality of things, then between them there 



RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 21 

must be a fundamental harmony. It is an incredible hypo 
thesis that there are two orders of truth, in absolute and ever- 
lasting opposition. Only on some Manichean theory, which 
among ourselves no one dares openly avow however much his 
beliefs may be tainted by it, is such a supposition even con- 
ceivable. That Religion is divine and Science diabolical, is a 
proposition which, though implied in many a clerical declama- 
tion, not the most vehement fanatic can bring himself dis- 
tinctly to assert. And whoever does not assert this, must 
admit that under their seeming antagonism lies hidden an 
entire agreement. 

Each side, therefore, has to recognize the claims of the other 
as standing for truths that are not to be ignored. He who 
contemplates the Universe from the religious point of view, 
must learn to see that this which we call Science is one con- 
stituent of the great whole ; and as such ought to be regarded 
with a sentiment like that which the remainder excites. 
While he who contemplates the universe from the scientific 
point of view, must learn to see that this which we call Reli- 
gion is similarly a constituent of the great whole ; and being 
such, must be treated as a subject of science with no more 
prejudice than any other reality. It behoves each party to 
strive to understand the other, with the conviction that the 
other has something worthy to be understood ; and with the 
conviction that when mutually recognized this something 
will be the basis of a complete reconciliation. 

How to find this something — how to reconcile them, thus 
becomes the problem which we should perseveringly try to 
solve. Not to reconcile them in any makeshift way — not to 
find one of those compromises we hear from time to time 
proposed, which their proposers must secretly feel are arti- 
ficial and temporary ; but to arrive at the terms of a real and 
permanent peace between them. The thing we have to seek 
out, is that ultimate truth which both will avow with abso- 
lute sincerity — with not the remotest mental reservation. 
There shall be no concession — no yielding on either side of 



# 

» 

22 RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 

something that will by and by be reasserted ; but the common 
ground on which they meet shall be one which each will 
maintain for itself. "We haye to discover some fundamental 
verity which Religion will assert, with all possible emphasis, 
in the absence of Science ; and which Science, with all possible 
emphasis, will assert in the absence of Religion — some funda- 
mental verity in the 'defence of which each will find the 
other its ally. 

Or, changing the point of view, our aim must be to co- 
ordinate the seemingly opposed convictions which Religion 
and Science embody. From the coalescence of antagonist 
ideas, each containing its portion of truth, there always arises 
a higher development. As in Greology when the igneous and 
aqueous hypotheses were united, a rapid advance took place ; 
as in Biology we are beginning to progress through the 
fusion of the doctrine of types with the doctrine of adapta- 
tions; as in Psychology the arrested growth recommences 
now that the disciples of Kant and those of Locke have both 
their views recognized in the theory that organized ex- 
periences produce forms of thought ; as in Sociology, now that 
it is beginning to assume a positive character, we find a recog- 
nition of both the party of progress and the party of order, as 
each holding a truth which forms a needful complement to 
that held by the other ; so must it be on a grander scale with 
Religion and Science. Here too we must look for a conception 
which combines the conclusions of both ; and here too we may 
expect important results from their combination. To un- 
derstand how Science and Religion express opposite sides of 
the same fact — the one its near or visible side, and the other 
its remote or invisible side — this it is which we must attempt; 
and to achieve this must profoundly modify our general 
Theory of Things. 

Already in the foregoing pages the method of seeking such 
a reconciliation has been vaguely foreshadowed. Before pro- 
ceeding further, however, it will be well to treat the question 
of method more definitely. To find that truth in which 



RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 23 

Religion and Science coalesce, we must know in what di- 
rection to look for it, and what kind of truth it is likely 
to be. 

§ 7. We have found a priori reason for believing that in 
all religions, even the rudest, there lies hidden a fundamental 
verity. "We have inferred that this fundamental verity is 
that element common to all religions, which remains after 
their discordant peculiarities have been mutually cancelled. 
And we have further inferred that this element is almost 
certain to be more abstract than any current religious 
doctrine. Now it is manifest that only in some highly 
abstract proposition, can Religion and Science find a common 
ground. Neither such dogmas as those of the trinitarian and 
unitarian, nor any such idea as that of propitiation, common 
though it may be to all religions, can serve as the desired 
basis of agreement ; for Science cannot recognize beliefs like 
these : they lie beyond its sphere. Hence we see not only 
that, judging by analogy, the essential truth contained in 
Religion is that most abstract element pervading all its forms ; 
but also that this most abstract element is the only one in 
which Religion is likely to agree with Science. 

Similarly if we begin at the other end, and inquire what 
scientific truth can unite Science and Religion. It is at once 
manifest that Religion can take no cognizance of special 
scientific doctrines ; any more than Science can take cogni- 
zance of special religious doctrines. The truth which Science 
asserts and Religion indorses cannot be one furnished by 
mathematics ; nor can it be a physical truth ; nor can it be a 
truth in chemistry : it cannot be a truth belonging to any 
particular science. No generalization of the phenomena of 
space, of time, of matter, or of force, can become a Religious 
conception. Such a conception, if it anywhere exists in 
Science, must be more general than any of these — must be 
one underlying all of them. If there be a fact which 
Science recognizes in common with Religion, it must be that 



% 






24 RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 

fact from which the several branches of Science diverge, as 
from their common root. 

Assuming then, that since these two great realities are 
constituents of the same mind, and respond to different aspects 
of the same Universe, there must be a fundamental harmony 
between them ; we see good reason to conclude that the most 
abstract truth contained in Religion and the most abstract 
truth contained in Science must be the one in which the two 
coalesce. The largest fact to be found within our mental 
range must be the one of which we are in search. Uniting 
these positive and negative poles of human thought, it must 
be the ultimate fact in our intelligence. 

§ 8. Before proceeding in the search for this common 
datum let me bespeak a little patience, The next three 
chapters, setting out from different points and converging to 
the same conclusion, will be comparatively unattractive. 
Students of philosophy will find in them much that is more 
or less familiar ; and to most of those who are unacquainted 
with the literature of modern metaphysics, they may prove 
somewhat difficult to follow. 

Our argument however cannot dispense with these chap- 
ters ; and the greatness of the question at issue justifies even 
a heavier tax on the reader's attention. The matter is one 
which concerns each and all of ns more than any other matter 
whatever. Though it affects us little in a direct way, the view 
we arrive at must indirectly affect us in all our relations — must 
determine our conception of the Universe, of Life, of Human 
Nature — must influence our ideas of right and wrong, and so 
modify our conduct. To reach that point of view from which 
the seeming discordance of Religion and Science disappears, 
and the two merge into one, must cause a revolution of 
thought fruitful in beneficial consequences, and must surely 
be worth an effort. 

Here ending preliminaries, let us now address ourselves to 
this all-important inquiry. 



CHAPTER II. 

ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 

§ 9. When, on the sea-shore, we note how the hulls of 
distant vessels are hidden below the horizon, and how, of still 
remoter vessels, only the uppermost sails are visible, we 
realize with tolerable clearness the slight curvature of that 
portion of the sea's surface which lies before us. But when 
we seek in imagination to follow out this curved surface as it 
actually exists, slowly bending round until all its meridians 
meet in a point eight thousand miles below our feet, we find 
ourselves utterly baffled. We cannot conceive in its real 
form and magnitude even that small segment of our globe 
which extends a hundred miles on every side of us ; much 
less the globe as a whole. The piece of rock on which we 
stand can be mentally represented with something like com- 
pleteness : we find ourselves able to think of its top, its sides, 
and its under surface at the same time ; or so nearly at the 
same time that they seem all present in consciousness together ; 
and so we can form what we call a conception of the rock. 
But to do the like with the Earth we find impossible. If 
even to imagine the antipodes as at that distant place in 
space which it actually occupies, is beyond our power ; much 
more beyond our power must it be at the same time to 
imagine all other remote points on the Earth's surface as 
in their actual places. Yet we habitually speak as though 
we had an idea of the Earth — as though we could think of it 
in 'the same way that we think of minor objects. 




















26 ULTIMATE KELIGIOUS IDEAS. 

What conception, then, do we form of it ? the reader may 
ask. That its name calls up in us some state of consciousness 
is unquestionable ; and if this state of consciousness is not a 
conception, properly so called, what is it ? The answer seems 
to be this : — We have learnt by indirect methods that the 
Earth is a sphere ; we have formed models approximately 
representing its shape and the distribution of its parts ; 
generally when the Earth is referred to, we either think of an 
indefinitely extended mass beneath our feet, or else, leaving 
out the actual Earth, we think of a body like a terrestrial 
globe ; but when we seek to imagine the Earth as it really is, 
we join these two ideas as well as we can — such perception as 
our eyes give us of the Earth's surface we couple with the 
conception of a sphere. And thus we form of the Earth, not 
a conception properly so called, but only a symbolic concep- 
tion. * 

A large proportion of our conceptions, including all those 
of much generality, are of this order. Great magnitudes, 
great durations, great numbers, are none of them actually 
conceived, but are all of them conceived more or less symbol- 
ically ; and so, too, are all those classes of objects of which we 
predicate some common fact. When mention is made of any 
individual man, a tolerably complete idea of him is formed. 
If the family he belongs to be spoken of, probably but a part 
of it will be represented in thought : under the necessity of 
attending to that which is said about the family, we realize in 
imagination only its most important or familiar members, 
and pass over the rest with a nascent consciousness which we 
know could, if requisite, be made complete. Should some- 
thing be remarked of the class, say farmers, to which this 
family belongs, we neither enumerate in thought all the indi- 
viduals contained in the class, nor believe that we could do so 
if required ; but we are content with taking some few samples 

* Those who may have before met with this term, will perceive that it is here 
tised in quite a different sense. 



ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 27 

of it, and remembering that these could be indefinitely mul- 
tiplied. Supposing the subject of which something is predi- 
cated be Englishmen, the answering state of consciousness is 
a still more inadequate representative of the reality. Yet 
more remote is the likeness of the thought to the thing, if 
reference be made to Europeans or to human beings. And 
when we come to propositions concerning the mammalia, or 
concerning the whole of the vertebrata, or concerning animals 
in general, or concerning all organic beings, the unlikeness of 
our conceptions to the objects named reaches its extreme. 
Throughout which series of instances we see, that as the 
number of objects grouped together in thought increases, the 
concept, formed of a few typical samples joined with the 
notion of multiplicity, becomes more and more a mere symbol ; 
not only because it gradually ceases to represent the size of 
the group, but also because as the group grows n^ore hetero- 
geneous, the typical samples thought of are less like the 
average objects which the group contains. 

This formation of symbolic conceptions, which inevitably 
arises as we pass from small and concrete objects to large and 
to discrete ones, is mostly a very useful, and indeed necessary, 
process. When, instead of things whose attributes can be 
tolerably well united in a single state of consciousness, we 
have to deal with things whose attributes are too vast or 
numerous to be so united, we must either drop in thought 
part of their attributes, or else not think of them at all — 
either form a more or less symbolic conception, or no concep- 
tion. We must predicate nothing of objects too great or too 
multitudinous to be mentally represented ; or we must make 
our predications by the help of extremely inadequate repre- 
sentations of such objects — mere symbols of them. 

But while by this process alone we are enabled to form 
general propositions, and so to reach general conclusions, we are 
by this process perpetually led into danger, and very often 
into error. We habitually mistake our symbolic conceptions 
for real ones ; and so are betrayed into countless false infer- 



28 



ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 






ences. Not only is it that in proportion as the concept we 
form of any thing or class of things, misrepresents the reality, 
we are apt to be wrong in any assertion we make respecting 
the reality ; but it is that we are led to suppose we have truly 
conceived a great variety of things which we have conceived 
only in this fictitious way ; and further to confound with 
these certain things which cannot be conceived in any way. 
How almost unavoidably we fall into this error it will be 
needful here to observe. 

From objects readily representable in their totality, to those 
of which we cannot form even an approximate representation, 
there is an insensible transition. Between a pebble and the 
entire Earth a series of magnitudes might be introduced, each 
of which differed from the adjacent ones so slightly that it 
would be impossible to say at what point in the series our 
conceptions of them became inadequate. Similarly, there is 
a gradual progression from those groups of a few individuals 
which we can think of as groups with tolerable completeness, 
to those larger and larger groups of which we can form 
nothing like true ideas. Whence it is manifest that we pass 
from actual conceptions to symbolic ones by infinitesimal 
steps. Note next that we are led to deal with, our sj^mbolic 
conceptions as though they were actual ones, not only because 
we cannot clearly separate the two, but also because, in the 
great majority of cases, the first serve our purposes nearly or 
quite as well as the last — are simply the abbreviated signs 
we substitute for those more elaborate signs which are our 
equivalents for real objects. Those very imperfect represent- 
ations of ordinary things which we habitually make in thinking, 
we know can be developed into adequate ones if needful. Those 
concepts of larger magnitudes and more extensive classes 
which we cannot make adequate, we still find can be verified 
by some indirect process of measurement or enumeration. 
And even in the case of such an utterly inconceivable object 
as the Solar System, we yet, through the fulfilment of pre- 
dictions founded on our symbolic conception of it, gain the 



ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 29 

conviction that this symbolic conception stands for an actual 
existence, and, in a sense, truly expresses certain of its 
• constituent relations. Thus our symbolic conceptions being 
in the majority of cases capable of development into complete 
ones, and in most other cases serving as steps to conclusions 
which are proved valid by their correspondence with observa- 
tion, we acquire a confirmed habit of dealing with them as 
true conceptions — as real representations of actualities. 
Learning by long experience that they can, if needful, be 
verified, we are led habitually to accept them without verifi- 
cation. And thus we open the door to some which profess 
to stand for known things, but which really stand for things 
that cannot be known in any way. 

To sum up, we must say of conceptions in general, that 
they are complete only when the attributes of the object 
conceived are of such number and kind that they can be 
represented in consciousness so nearly at the same time as to 
seem all present together ; that as the objects conceived 
become larger and more complex, some of the attributes first 
thought of fade from consciousness before the rest have been 
represented, and the conception thus becomes imperfect ; that 
when the size, complexity, or discreteness of the object 
conceived becomes very great, only a small portion of its 
attributes can be thought of at once, and the conception 
formed of it thus becomes so inadequate as to be a mere sym- 
bol ; that nevertheless such symbolic conceptions, which are 
indispensable in general thinking, are legitimate, provided 
that by some cumulative or indirect process of thought, or by 
the fulfilment of predictions based on them, we can assure 
ourselves that they stand for actualities ; but that when our 
symbolic conceptions are such that no cumulative or indirect I 
processes of thought can enable us to ascertain that there are 
corresponding actualities, nor any predictions be made whose 
fulfilment can prove this, then they are altogether vicious and / 
illusive, and in no way distinguishable from pure fictions. 









30 ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 

§ 10. And now to consider the bearings of this general 
truth on our immediate topic — Ultimate Religious Ideas. 

To the aboriginal man and to every civilized child the 
problem of the Universe suggests itself. What is it ? and 
whence comes it ? are questions that press for solution, when, 
from time to time, the imagination rises above daily triviali- 
ties. To nil the vacuum of thought, any theory that is 
proposed seems better than none. And in the absence of 
others, any theory that is proposed easily gains a footing and 
afterwards maintains its ground : partly from the readiness of 
mankind to accept proximate explanations ; partly from the 
authority which soon accumulates round such explanations 
when given. 

A critical examination, however, will prove not only that 
no current hypothesis is tenable, but also that no tenable 
hypothesis can be framed. 

§ 11. Respecting the origin of the Universe three verbally 
intelligible suppositions may be made. We may assert that it 
is self-existent ; or that it is self- created ; or that it is created 
by an external agency. Which of these suppositions is most 
credible it is not needful here to inquire. The deeper ques- 
tion, into which this finally merges, is, whether any one of 
them is even conceivable in the true sense of the word. Let 
us successively test them. 

When we speak of a man as self-supporting, of an appa- 
ratus as self-acting, or of a tree as self- developed, our ex- 
pressions, however inexact, stand for things that can be 
realized in thought with tolerable completeness. Our con- 
ception of the self-development of a tree is doubtless 
symbolic. But though we cannot really represent in con- 
sciousness the entire series of complex changes through which 
the tree passes, yet we can thus represent the leading features 
of the series ; and general experience teaches us that by long 
continued observation we could gain the power to realize in 
thought a series of changes more fully representing the actual 



ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 31 

series : that is, we know that our symbolic conception of self- 
development can be expanded into something like a real 
conception ; and that it expresses, however inaccurately, an 
actual process in nature. But when we speak of self- exist- 
ence, and, helped by the above analogies, form some vague sym- 
bolic conception of it, we delude ourselves in supposing that 
this symbolic conception is of the same order as the others. On 
joining the word self to the word existence, the force of 
association makes us believe we have a thought like that 
suggested by the compound word self-acting. An endeavour 
to expand this symbolic conception, however, will undeceive 
us. In the first place, it is clear that by self- existence 

we especially mean, an existence independent of any other — 
not produced by any other : the assertion of self-existence is 
simply an indirect denial of creation. In thus excluding the 
idea of any antecedent cause, we necessarily exclude the idea 
of a beginning ; for to admit the idea of a beginning — to 
admit that there was a time when the existence had not com- 
menced — is to admit that its commencement was determined 
by something, or was caused ; which is a contradiction. Self- 
existence, therefore, necessarily means existence without a 
beginning ; and to form a conception of self- existence is to 
form a conception of existence without a beginning. ISTow by 
no mental effort can we do this. To conceive existence 
through infinite past-time, implies the conception of infinite 
past-time, which is an impossibility. To this let us add, 

that even were self- existence conceivable, it would not in any 
sense be an explanation of the Universe. ]STo one will say 
that the existence of an object at the present moment is 
made easier to understand by the discovery that it existed an 
hour ago, or a day ago, or a year ago ; and if its existence 
now is not made in the least degree more comprehensible by 
its existence during some previous finite period of time, then 
no accumulation of such finite periods, even could we extend 
them to an infinite period, would make it more comprehensible. 
Thus the Atheistic theory is not only absolutely unthinkable, 



32 ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 

but, even if it were thinkable, would not be a solution. The 
assertion that the Universe is self- existent does not really carry 
us a step beyond the cognition of its present existence ; and 
so leaves us with a mere re-statement of the mystery. 

The hypothesis of self- creation, which practically amounts 
to what is called Pantheism, is similarly incapable of being 
represented in thought. Certain phenomena, such as the 
precipitation of invisible vapour into cloud, aid us in forming 
a symbolic conception of a self-evolved Universe ; and there 
are not wanting indications in the heavens, and on the earth, 
which help us to render this conception tolerably definite. 
But while the succession of phases through which the 
Universe has passed in reaching its present form, may 
perhaps be comprehended as in a sense self-determined ; yet 
the impossibility of expanding our symbolic conception of self- 
creation into a real conception, remains as complete as ever. 
Really to conceive self- creation, is to conceive potential 
existence passing into actual existence by some inherent 
necessity ; which we cannot do. We cannot form 

any idea of a potential existence of the universe, as dis- 
tinguished from its actual existence. If represented in 
thought at all, potential existence must be represented, as 
something, that is as an actual existence ; to suppose that it 
can be represented as nothing, involves two absurdities — 
that nothing is mo»e than a negation, and can be positively 
represented in thought; and that one nothing is distinguished 
from all other nothings by its power to develope into some- 
thing. , Nor is this all. "We have no state of conscious- 
ness answering to the words — an inherent necessity by which 
J potential existence became actual existence. To render them 

into thought, existence, having for an indefinite period re- 
mained in one form, must be conceived as passing without 
any external or additional impulse, into another form; and 
this involves the idea of a change without a cause — a thing 
of which no idea is possible. Thus the terms of this hypo- 
thesis do not stand for real thoughts ; but merely suggest the 









ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 33 

vaguest symbols incapable of any interpretation. More- 

over, even were it true that potential existence is conceivable 
as a different thing from actual existence ; and that the transi- 
tion from the one to the other can be mentally realized as a 
self-determined change ; we should still be no forwarder : the 
problem would simply be removed a step back. For whence 
the potential existence ? This would just as much require 
accounting for as actual existence ; and just the same difficul- 
ties would meet us. Respecting the origin of such a* latent 
power, no other suppositions could be made than those above 
named — self-existence, self- creation, creation by external 
agency. The self-existence of a potential universe is no 
more conceivable than we have found the self- existence of the 
actual universe to be. The self-creation of such a potential 
universe would involve over again the difficulties here 
stated — would imply behind this potential universe a more 
remote potentiality ; and so on in an infinite series, leaving 
us at last no forwarder than at first. While to assign as the 
source of this potential universe an external agency, would be 
to introduce the notion of a potential universe for no purpose 
whatever. 

There remains to be examined the comm only-received or 
theistic hypothesis — creation by external agency. Alike in 
the rudest creeds and in the cosmogony long current among 
ourselves, it is assumed that the genesis of the Heavens and 
the Earth is effected somewhat after the manner in which a 
workman shapes a piece of furniture. And this assumption 
is made not by theologians only, but by the immense majority 
of philosophers, past and present. Equally in the writings of 
Plato, and in those of not a few living men of science, we 
find it taken for granted that there is an analogy between the 
process of creation and the process of manufacture. Now 

in the first place, not only is this conception one that cannot 
bv any cumulative process of thought, or the fulfilment of 
predictions based on it, be shown to answer to anything 
actual ; and not only is it that in the absence of all evidence 
3* 



' 



I 34 ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 

respecting the process of creation, we have no proof of corre- 
spondence even between this limited conception and some 
limited portion of the fact ; but it is that the conception 
is not even consistent with itself — cannot be realized in 
thought, when all its assumptions are granted. Though it is 
true that the proceedings of a human artificer may vaguely 
symbolize to us a method after which the Universe might be 
shaped, yet they do not help us to comprehend the real 
mystery; namely, the origin of the material of which the 
Universe consists. The artizan does not make the iron, wood, 
or stone, he uses; but merely fashions and combines them. 
If we suppose suns, and planets, and satellites, and all they 
contain to have been similarly formed by a " Great Artificer," 
we suppose merely that certain pre-existing elements were 
thus put into their present arrangement. But whence the 
pre-existing elements ? The comparison helps us not in the 
least to understand that ; and unless it helps us to understand 
that, it is worthless. The production of matter out of nothing 
is the real mystery, which neither this simile nor any other 
enables us to conceive ; and a simile which does not enable us 
to conceive this, may just as well be dispensed with. Still 

more manifest does the insufficiency of this theory of creation 
become, when we turn from material objects to that which 
contains them — when instead of matter we contemplate space. 
Did there exist nothing but an immeasurable void, explanation 
would be needed as much as now. There would still arise the 
question — how came it so ? If the theory of creation by ex- 
ternal agency were an adequate one, it would supply an 
answer ; and its answer would be— space was made in the same 
manner that matter was made. But the impossibility of con- 
ceiving this is so manifest, that no one dares to assert it. For 
if space was created, it must have been previously non-existent. 
The non-existence of space cannot, however, by any mental 
effort be imagined. It is one of the most familiar truths that 
the idea of space as surrounding us on all sides, is not for a mo- 
ment to be got rid of— not only are we compelled to think of 



* 



ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 35 

space as now everywhere present, but we are unable to con- 
ceive its absence either in the past or the future. And if the 
non-existence of space is absolutely inconceivable, then, neces- 
sarily, its creation is absolutely inconceivable. Lastly, 
even supposing that the genesis of the Universe could really 
be represented in thought as the result of an external agency, 
the mystery would be as great as ever ; for there would still 
arise the question — how came there to be an external agency ? 
To account for this only the same three hypotheses are possible 
— self- existence, self- creation, and creation by external agency. 
Of these the last is useless : it commits us to an infinite series 
of such agencies, and even then leaves us where we were. By 
the second we are practically involved in the same predica- 
ment ; since, as already shown, self- creation implies an infinite 
series of potential existences. We are obliged therefore to fall 
back upon the first, which is the one commonly accepted and 
commonly supposed to be satisfactory. Those who cannot 
conceive a self-existent universe ; and who therefore assume 
a creator as the source of the universe ; take for granted that 
they can conceive a self-existent creator. The mystery 
which they recognize in this great fact surrounding them on 
every side, they transfer to an alleged source of this great 
fact ; and then suppose that they have solved the mystery. 
But they delude themselves. As was proved at the outset of 
the argument, self- existence is rigorously inconceivable ; and 
this holds true whatever be the nature of the object of which 
it is predicated. Whoever agrees that the atheistic hypo- 
thesis is untenable because it involves the impossible idea of 
self-existence, must perforce admit that the theistie hypo- 
thesis is untenable if it contains the same impossible idea. 

Thus these three different suppositions respecting the origin 
of things, verbally intelligible though they are, and severally 
seeming to their respective adherents quite rational, turn out, 
when critically examined, to be literally unthinkable. It is 
not a question of probability, or credibility, but of conceiv- 
ability. Experiment proves that the elements of these hypo- 






36 ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 

theses cannot even be put together in consciousness ; and 
we can entertain them only as we entertain such pseud-ideas 
as a square fluid and a moral substance — only by abstaining 
from the endeavour to render them into actual thoughts. 
Or, reverting to our original mode of statement, we may say 
that they severally involve symbolic conceptions of the illegiti- 
mate and illusive kind. Differing so widely as they seem to 
do, the atheistic, the pantheistic, and the theistic hypotheses 
contain the same ultimate element. It is impossible to avoid 
making the assumption of self- existence somewhere; and 
whether that assumption be made nakedly, or under compli- 
cated disguises, it is equally vicious, equally unthinkable. Be 
it a fragment of matter, or some fancied potential form of 
matter, or some more remote and still less imaginable cause, 
our conception of its self-existence can be formed only by 
joining with it the notion of unlimited duration through past 
time. And as unlimited duration is inconceivable, all those 
formal ideas into which it enters are inconceivable ; and indeed, 
if such an expression is allowable, are the more inconceivable 
in proportion as the other elements of the ideas are indefinite. 
So that in fact, impossible as it is to think of the actual uni- 
verse as self- existing, we do but multiply impossibilities of 
thought by every attempt we make to explain its existence. 

§ 12. If from the origin of the Universe we turn to its 
nature, the like insurmountable difficulties rise up before us 
on all sides — or rather, the same difficulties under new aspects. 
We find ourselves on the one hand obliged to make certain 
assumptions ; and yet on the other hand we find these assump- 
tions cannot be represented in thought. 

When we inquire what is the meaning of the various effects 
produced upon our senses — when we ask how there come to 
be in our consciousness impressions of sounds, of colours, of 
tastes, and of those various attributes which we ascribe to 
bodies ; we are compelled to regard them as the effects of 
some cause. We may stop short in the belief that this cause 



ULTIMATE RELIGIOITS IDEAS. 37 

is what we call matter. Or we may conclude, as some do, that 
matter is only a certain mode of manifestation of spirit ; 
which is therefore the true cause. Or, regarding matter and 
spirit as proximate agencies, we may attribute all the changes 
wrought in our consciousness to immediate divine power. 
But be the cause we assign what it may, we are obliged to 
suppose some cause. And we are not only obliged to suppose 
some cause, but also a first cause. The matter, or spirit, or 
whatever we assume to be the agent producing on us these 
various impressions, must either be the first cause of them or 
not. If it is the first cause, the conclusion is reached. If it 
is not the first cause, then by implication there must be a 
cause behind it ; which thus becomes the real cause of the 
effect. Manifestly, however complicated the assumptions, the 
same conclusion must inevitably be reached. We cannot 
think at all about the impressions which the external world 
produces on us, without thinking of them as caused ; and we 
cannot carry out an inquiry concerning their causation, with- 
out inevitably committing ourselves to the hypothesis of a 
First Cause. 

But now if we go a step further, and ask what is the nature 
of this First Cause, we are driven by an inexorable logic to 
certain further conclusions. Is the First Cause finite or in- 
finite ? If we say finite we involve ourselves in a dilemma. 
To think of the First Cause as finite, is to think of it as 
limited. To think of it as limited, necessarily implies a con- 
ception of something beyond its limits : it is absolutely im- 
possible to conceive a thing as bounded without conceiving a 
region surrounding its boundaries. What now must we say of 
this region ? If the First Cause is limited, and there conse- 
quently lies something outside of it, this something must have ' 
no First Cause — must be uncaused. But if we admit that there 
can be something uncaused, there is no reason to assume a cause 
for anything. If beyond that finite region over which the First 
Cause extends, there lies a region, which we are compelled to 
regard as infinite, over which it does not extend — if we admit 



\ 



■ v 1 % 



<fi \m 



38 . ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 

that there is an infinite uncaused surrounding the finite caused; 
we tacitly abandon the hypothesis of causation altogether. Thus 
it is impossible to consider the First Cause as finite. And if 
it cannot be finite it must be infinite. 

Another inference concerning the First Cause is equally 
unavoidable. It must be independent. If it is dependent it 
cannot be the First Cause ; for that must be the First 
Cause on which it depends. It is not enough to say that it is 
partially independent; since this implies some necessity which 
determines its partial dependence, and this necessity, be it 
what it may, must be a higher cause, or the true First Cause, 
which is a contradiction. But to Jhink of the First Cause as 
totally independent, is to think of it as that which exists in 
the absence of all other existence ; seeing that if the presence 
of any other existence is necessary, it must be partially de- 
pendent on that other existence, and so cannot be the First 
Cause. ISTot only however must the First Cause be a form of 
being /which has no necessary relation to any other form of 
being, but it can have no necessary relation within itself. 
There can be nothing in it which determines change, and yet 
nothing which prevents change. For if it contains something 
which imposes such necessities or restraints, this something 
must be a cause higher than the First Cause, which is absurd. 
Thus the First Cause must be in every sense perfect, complete, 
total : including within itself all power, and transcending all 
law t Or to use the established word, it must be absolute. 

Here then respecting the nature of the Universe, we seem 
committed to certain unavoidable conclusions. The objects 
and actions surrounding us, not less than the phenomena of 
our own consciousness, compel us to ask a cause ; in our search 
for a cause, we discover no resting place until we arrive at the 
hypothesis of a First Cause ; and we have no alternative but 
to regard this First Cause as Infinite and Absolute. These 
are inferences forced upon us by arguments from which there 
appears no escape. It is hardly needful however to show 
those who have followed thus far, how illusive are these 



ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 39 

reasonings and their results. But that it would tax the 
reader's patience to no purpose, it might easily be proved 
that the materials of which the argument is built, equally 
with the conclusions based on them, are merely symbolic con- 
ceptions of the illegitimate order. Instead, however, of re- 
peating the disproof used above, it will be desirable to pursue 
another method ; showing the fallacy of these conclusions by 
disclosing their mutual contradictions. 

Here I cannot do better than avail myself of the demonstra- 
tion which Mr Mansel, carrying out in detail the doctrine of 
Sir William Hamilton, has given in his " Limits of Religious 
Thought." And I gladly do this, not only because his mode 
of presentation cannot be improved, but also because, writing 
as he does in defence of the current Theology, his reasonings 
will be the more acceptable to the majority of readers. 

§ 13. Having given preliminary definitions of the First 
Cause, of the Infinite, and of the Absolute, Mr Mansel says : — 

" But these three conceptions, the Cause, the Absolute, the 
Infinite, all equally indispensable, do they not imply contra- 
diction to each other, when viewed in conjunction, as attributes 
of one and the same Being ? A Cause cannot, as such, be 
absolute : the Absolute cannot, as such, be a cause. The cause, 
as such, exists only in relation to its effect : the cause is a 
cause of the effect ; the effect is an effect of the cause. On 
the other hand, the conception of the Absolute implies a possi- 
ble existence out of all relation. We attempt to escape from 
this apparent contradiction, by introducing the idea of succes- 
sion in time. The Absolute exists first by itself, and after- 
wards becomes a Cause. But here we are checked by the 
third conception, that of the Infinite. How can the Infinite 
become that which it was not from the first ? If Causation is 
a possible mode of existence, that which exists without causing 
is not infinite ; that which becomes a cause has passed beyond 
its former limits." * * * 

" Supposing the Absolute to become a cause, it will follow 









40 ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 






that it operates by means of freewill and consciousness. For 
a necessary cause cannot be conceived as absolute and infinite. 
If necessitated by something beyond itself, it is thereby limit- 
ed by a superior power ; and if necessitated by itself, it has in 
its own nature a necessary relation to its effect. The act of 
causation must therefore be voluntary ; and volition is only 
possible in a conscious being. But consciousness again is 
only conceivable as a relation. There must be a conscious 
subject, and an object of which he is conscious. The subject 
is a subject to the object ; the object is an object to the sub- 
ject ; and neither can exist by itself as the absolute. This 
difiiculty, again, may be for the moment evaded, by distin- 
guishing between the absolute as related to another and the 
absolute as related to itself. The Absolute, it may be said, 
may possibly be conscious, provided it is only conscious of it- 
self. But this alternative is, in ultimate analysis, no less self- 
destructive than the other. For the object of consciousness, 
whether a mode of the subject's existence or not, is either 
created in and by the act of consciousness, or has an existence 
independent of it. In the former case, the object depends 
upon the subject, and the subject alone is the true absolute. 
In the latter case, the subject depends upon the object, and 
the object alone is the true absolute. Or if we attempt a third 
hypothesis, and maintain that each exists independently of the 
other, we have no absolute at all, but only a pair of relatives ; 
for coexistence, whether in consciousness or not, is itself a 
relation. " 

" The corollary from this reasoning is obvious. Not only 
is the Absolute, as conceived, incapable of a necessary relation 
to anything else; but it is also incapable of containing, by 
the constitution of its own nature, an essential relation with- 
in itself ; as a whole, for instance, composed of parts, or as a 
substance consisting of attributes, or as a conscious subject 
in antithesis to an object. For if there is in the absolute any 
principle of unity, distinct from the mere accumulation of 
parts or attributes, this principle alone is the true absolute. 






ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 41 

If, on the other hand, there is no such principle, then there is 
no absolute at all, but only a plurality of relatives. The 
almost unanimous voice of philosophy, in pronouncing that 
the absolute is both one and simple, must be accepted as the 
voice of reason also, so far as reason has any voice in the 
matter. But this absolute unity, as indifferent and contain- 
ing no attributes, can neither be distinguished from the multi- 
plicity of finite beings by any characteristic feature, nor be 
identified with them in their multiplicity. Thus we are land- 
ed in an inextricable dilemma. The Absolute cannot be con- 
ceived as conscious, neither can it be conceived as unconscious : 
it cannot be conceived as complex, neither can it be conceived 
as simple : it cannot be conceived by difference, neither can it 
be conceived by the absence of difference : it cannot be iden- 
tified with the universe, neither can it be distinguished from 
it. The One and the Many, regarded as the beginning of 
existence, are thus alike incomprehensible." 

" The fundamental conceptions of Rational Theology being 
thus self- destructive, we may naturally expect to find the same 
antagonism manifested in their special applications. * * * 
How, for example, can Infinite Power be able to do all things, 
and yet Infinite Goodness be unable to do evil ? How can In- 
finite Justice exact the utmost penalty for every sin, and yet 
Infinite Mercy pardon the sinner ? How can Infinite Wisdom 
know all that is to come, and yet Infinite Freedom be at liberty 
to do or to forbear ? How is the existence of Evil compatible 
with that of an infinitely perfect Being ; for if he wills it, he 
is not infinitely good ; and if he wills it not, his will is 
thwarted and his sphere of action limited ? " * * * 

" Let us, however, suppose for an instant that these difficul- 
ties are surmounted, and the existence of the Absolute securely 
established on the testimony of reason. Still we have not 
succeeded in reconciling this idea with that of a Cause : we 
have done nothing towards explaining how the absolute can 
give rise to the relative, the infinite to the finite. If the con 
dition of casual activity is a higher state than that of qui- 



42 



ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 






escence, the Absolute, whether acting voluntarily or involun- 
tarily, has passed from a condition of comparative imperfection 
to one of comparative perfection ; and therefore was not 
originally perfect. If the state of activity is an inferior state 
to that of quiescence, the Absolute, in becoming a cause, has 
lost its original perfection. There remains only the supposi- 
tion that the two states are equal, and the act of creation one of 
complete indifference. But this supposition annihilates the 
unity of the absolute, or it annihilates itself. If the act of 
creation is real, and yet indifferent, we must admit the possi- 
bility of two conceptions of the absolute, the one as productive, 
the other as non-productive. If the act is not real, the sup 
position itself vanishes." * * * 

" Again, how can the relative be conceived as coming into 
being ? If it is a distinct reality from the absolute, it must be 
conceived as passing from non-existence into existence. But 
to conceive an object as non-existent, is again a self-contradic- 
tion ; for that which is conceived exists, as an object of thought, 
in and by that conception. We may abstain from thinking of 
an object at all ; but, if we think of it, we cannot but think of 
it as existing. It is possible at one time not to think of an 
object at all, and at another to think of it as already in being ; 
but to think of it in the act of becoming, in the progress from 
not being into being, is to think that which, in the very 
thought, annihilates itself." * * * 

" To sum up briefly this portion of my argument. The 
conception of the Absolute and Infinite, from whatever side we 
view it, appears encompassed with contradictions. There is 
a contradiction in supposing such an object to exist, whether 
alone or in conjunction with others ; and there is a contradic- 
tion in supposing it not to exist. There is a contradiction in 
conceiving it as one ; and there is a contradiction in conceiv- 
ing it as many. There is a contradiction in ^conceiving it as 
personal ; and there is a contradiction in conceiving it as im- 
personal. It cannot, without contradiction, be represented as 
active ; nor, without equal contradiction, be represented as 






ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 43 

inactive. It cannot be conceived as the sum of all existence ; 
nor yet can it be conceived as a part only of that sum." 

§ 14. And now what is the bearing of these results on the 
question before us ? Our examination of Ultimate Religious 
Ideas has been carried on with the view of making manifest 
some fundamental verity contained in them. Thus far how- 
ever we have arrived at negative conclusions only. Criti- 
cising the essential ^conceptions involved in the different 
orders of beliefs, we find no one of them to be logically 
defensible. Passing over the consideration of credibility, and 
confining ourselves to that of conceivability, we see that 
Atheism, Pantheism, and Theism, when rigorously analysed, 
severally prove to be absolutely unthinkable. Instead of 
disclosing a fundamental verity existing in each, our invest- 
igation seems rather to have shown that there is no fund- 
amental verity contained in any. To carry away this 
conclusion, however, would be a fatal error; as we shall 
shortly see. 

Leaving out the accompanying moral code, which is in all 
cases a supplementary growth, every Religion may be defined 
as an a priori theory of the Universe. The surrounding 
facts being given, some form of agency is alleged which, in 
the opinion of those alleging it, accounts for these facts. Be 
it in the rudest Fetishism, which assumes a separate person- 
ality behind every phenomenon ; be it in Polytheism, in 
which these personalities are partially generalized ; be it in 
Monotheism, in which they are wholly generalized ; or be it 
in Pantheism, in which the generalized personality becomes 
one with the phenomena; we equally find an hypothesis 
which is supposed to render the Universe comprehensible. 
Nay, even that which is commonly regarded as the negation 
of all Religion — even positive Atheism, comes within the 
definition ; for it, too, in asserting the self- existence of Space, 
Matter, and Motion, which it regards as adequate causes of 
every appearance, propounds an a priori theory from which 



44 ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 

it holds the facts to be deducible. Now every theory tacitly 
asserts two things : firstly, that there is something to be 
explained ; secondly, that such and such is the explanation. 
Hence, however widely different speculators may disagree in 
the solutions they give of the same problem ; yet by implica- 
tion they agree that there is a problem to be solved. Here 
then is an element which all creeds have in common. Reli- 
gions diametrically opposed in their overt dogmas, are 
yet perfectly at one p. the tacit conviction that the exist- 
ence of the world with* all it contains and all which surrounds 
it, is a mystery everf pressing for interpretation. On this 
point, if on no other, there is entire unanimity. 

Thus we come within sight of that which we seek. In the 
last chapter, reasons were given for inferring that human 
beliefs in general, and especially the perennial ones, contain, 
under whatever disguises of error, some soul of truth ; and 
here we have arrived at a truth underlying even the grossest 
superstitions. We saw further that this soul of truth was 
most likely to be some constituent common to conflicting 
opinions of the same order ; and here we have a constituent 
which may be claimed alike by all religions. It was pointed 
out that this soul of truth would almost certainly be more 
abstract than any of the beliefs involving it ; and the truth 
we have arrived at is one exceeding in abstractness the most 
abstract religious doctrines. In every respect, therefore, our 
conclusion answers to the requirements. It has all the 
characteristics which we inferred must belong to that funda- 
mental verity expressed by religions in general. 

That this is the vital element in all religions is further 
proved by the fact, that it is the element which not only survives 
every change, but grows more distinct the more highly the 
religion is developed. Aboriginal creeds, though pervaded 
by the idea of personal agencies which are usually unseen, 
yet conceive these agencies under perfectly concrete and 
ordinary forms — class them with the visible agencies of men 
and animals ; and so hide a vague perception of mystery in 



ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 45 

disguises as unmysterious as possible. The Polytheistic con- 
ceptions in their advanced phases, represent the presiding 
personalities in greatly idealized shapes, existing in a remote 
region, working in subtle ways, and communicating with men 
by omens or through inspired persons ; that is, the ultimate 
causes of things are regarded as less familiar and compre- 
hensible. The growth of a Monotheistic faith, accompanied 
as it is by a denial of those beliefs in which the divine nature 
is assimilated to the human in all its lower propensities, shows 
us a further step in the same direction ; and however imper- 
fectly this higher faith is at first realized, we yet see in altars 
" to the unknown and unknowable God," and in the worship 
of a God that cannot by any searching be found out, that 
there is a clearer recognition of the inscrutableness of creation. 
Further developments of theology, ending in such assertions 
as that " a God understood would be no God at all," and " to 
think that God is, as we can think him to be, is blasphemy," 
exhibit this recognition still more distinctly ; and it pervades 
all the cultivated theology of the present day. Thus while 
other constituents of religious creeds one by one drop away, 
this remains and grows even more manifest ; and so is shown 
to be the essential constituent. 

Nor does the evidence end here. Not only is the omni- 
presence of something which passes comprehension, that most 
abstract belief which is common to all religions, which be- 
comes the more distinct in proportion as they develope, and 
which remains after their discordant elements have been 
mutually cancelled ; but it is that belief which the most un- 
sparing criticism of each leaves unquestionable— or rather 
makes ever clearer. It has nothing to fear from the most 
inexorable logic ; but on the contrary is a belief which the 
most inexorable logic shows to be more profoundly true than 
any religion supposes. For every religion, setting out though 
it does with the tacit assertion of a mystery, forthwith pro- 
ceeds to give some solution of this mystery ; and so asserts 
that it is not a mystery passing human comprehension. But 



46 ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 

an examination of the solutions they severally propound, 
shows them to be uniformly invalid. The analysis of every 
. possible hypothesis proves, not simply that no hypothesis is 
sufficient, but that no hypothesis is even thinkable. And 
thus the mystery which all religions recognize, turns out to 
be a far more transcendent mystery than any of them suspect 
— not a relative, but an absolute mystery. 

Here, then, is an ultimate religious truth of the highest 
possible certainty — a truth in which religions in general are 
at one with each other, and with a philosophy antagonistic 
to their special dogmas. And this truth, respecting which 
there is a latent agreement among all mankind from the 
fetish- worshipper to the most stoical critic of human creeds, 
must be the one we seek. If Religion and Science are to be 
reconciled, the basis of reconciliation must be this deepest, 
widest, and most certain of all facts — that the Power which 
the Universe manifests to us is utterly inscrutable. 



CHAPTER III. 

ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 

§ 15. What are Space and Time ? Two hypotheses are 
current respecting them : the one that they are objective, and 
the other that they are subjective — the one that they are 
external to, and independent of, ourselves, the other that 
they are internal, and appertain to our own consciousness. 
Let us see what becomes of these hypotheses under analysis. 

To say that Space and Time exist objectively, is to say that 
they are entities. The assertion that they are non-entities is 
self-destructive : non-entities are non-existences; and to allege 
that non-existences exist objectively, is a contradiction in 
terms. Moreover, to deny that Space and Time are things, 
and so by implication to call them nothings, involves the 
absurdity that there are two kinds of nothing. Neither can 
they be regarded as attributes of some entity ; seeing, not 
only that it is impossible really to conceive any entity of 
which they are attributes, but seeing further that we cannot 
think of them as disappearing, even if everything else disap- 
peared ; whereas attributes necessarily disappear along with 
the entities they belong to. Thus as Space and Time cannot 
be either non-entities, nor the attributes of entities, we have 
no choice but consider them as entities. But while, on 

the hypothesis of their objectivity, Space and Time must be 
classed as things, we find, on experiment, that to represent 
them in thought as things is impossible. To be conceived 
at all, a thing must be conceived as having attributes. We 






48 ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 

can distinguish something from nothing, only by the power 
which the something has to act on our consciousness ; the 
several affections it produces on our consciousness (or else the 
hypothetical causes of them), we attribute to it, and call 
its attributes ; and the absence of these attributes is the 
absence of the terms in which the something is conceived, 
and involves the absence of a conception. What now are the 
attributes of Space ? The only one which it is possible for a 
moment to think of as belonging to it, is that of extension ; 
and to credit it with this implies a confusion of thought. 
For extension and Space are convertible terms : by extension, 
as we ascribe it to surrounding objects, we mean occupancy 
of Space ; and thus to say that Space is extended, is to say 
that Space occupies Space. How we are similarly unable 
to assign any attribute to Time, scarcely needs pointing 
out. Kor are Time and Space unthinkable as entities 

only from the absence of attributes ; there is another peculi- 
arity, familiar to readers of metaphysics, which equally ex- 
cludes them from the category. All entities which we actually 
know as such, are limited ; and even if we suppose ourselves 
either to know or to be able to conceive some unlimited 
entity, we of necessity in so classing it positively separate it 
from the class of limited entities. But of Space and Time 
we cannot assert either limitation or the absence of limitation. 
"We find ourselves totally unable to form any mental image of 
unbounded Space ; and yet totally unable to imagine bounds 
beyond which there is no Space. Similarly at the other 
extreme : it is impossible to think of a limit to the divisi- 
bility of Space ; yet equally impossible to tnink of its infinite 
divisibility. And, without stating them, it will be seen that we 
labour under" like impotencies in respect to Time. Thus 

we cannot conceive Space and Time as entities, and are 
equally disabled from conceiving them as either the attributes 
of entities or as non-entities. We are compelled to think of 
them as existing ; and yet cannot bring them within those 
conditions under which existences are represented in thought. 






ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 49 

Snail we then take refuge in the Kantian doctrine ? shall 
we say that Space and Time are forms of the intellect, — " d 
priori laws or conditions of the conscious mind" ? To do this 
is to escape from great difficulties by rushing into greater. 
The proposition with which Kant's philosophy sets out, 
verbally intelligible though it is, cannot by any effort be 
rendered into thought — cannot be interpreted into an idea 
properly so called, but stands merely for a pseud-idea. In 

the first place, to assert that Space and Time, as we are con- 
scious of them, are subjective conditions, is by implication 
to assert that they are not objective realities : if the Space 
and Time present to our minds belong to the ego, then of 
neccessity they do not belong to the non-ego. Now it is abso- 
lutely impossible to think this. The very fact on which 
Kant bases his hypothesis — namely that our consciousness of 
Space and Time cannot be suppressed — testifies as much ; for 
that consciousness of Space and Time which we cannot rid 
ourselves of, is the consciousness of them as existing ob- 
jectively. It is useless to reply that such an inability must 
inevitably result if they are subjective forms. The question 
here is — What does consciousness directly testify ? And the 
direct testimony of consciousness is, that Time and Space are 
not within but without the mind ; and so absolutely independ- 
ent of it that they cannot be conceived to become non-existent 
even were the mind to become non-existent. Besides 

being positively unthinkable in what it tacitly denies, 
the theory of Kant is equally unthinkable in what it openly 
affirms. It is not simply that we cannot combine the thought 
of Space with the thought of our own personality, and con- 
template the one as a property of the other — though our 
inability to do this would prove the inconceivableness of the 
hypothesis — but it is that the hypothesis carries in itself the 
proof of its own inconceivableness. For if Space and Time 
are forms of thought, they can never be thought of; since it 
is impossible for anything to be at once the form of thought 
and the matter of thought. That Space and Time are ob- 






50 ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS 






jects of consciousness, Kant emphatically asserts by saying 
that it is impossible to suppress the consciousness of them. 
How then, if they are objects of consciousness, can they at the 
same time be conditions of consciousness ? If Space and Time 
are the conditions under which we think, then when we think 
of Space and Time themselves, our thoughts must be uncon- 
ditioned ; and if there can thus be unconditioned thoughts, 
what becomes of the theory ? 

It results therefore that Space and Time are wholly in- 
comprehensible. The immediate knowledge which we seem 
to have of them, proves, when examined, to be total ignor- 
ance. While our belief in their objective reality is in- 
surmountable, we are unable to give any rational account 
of it. And to posit the alternative belief (possible to state 
but impossible to realize) is merely to multiply irrationali- 
ties. 



§ 16. Were it not for the necessities of the argument, it 
would be inexcusable to occupy the reader's attention with 
the threadbare, and yet unended, controversy respecting the 
divisibility of matter. Matter is either infinitely divisible or 
it is not : no third possibility can be named. Which of the 
alternatives shall we accept ? If we say that Matter is in- 
finitely divisible, we commit ourselves to a supposition not 
realizable in thought. We can bisect and re-bisect a body, 
and continually repeating the act until we reduce its parts to 
a size no longer physically divisible, may then mentally con' 
tinue the process without limit. To do this, however, is not 
really to conceive the infinite divisibility of matter, but to form 
a symbolic conception incapable of expansion into a real one, 
and not admitting Ci other verification. Really to conceive 
the infinite divisibility of matter, is mentally to follow out the 
divisions to infinity ; and to do this would require infinite 
time. On the other hand, to assert that matter is hot 
infinitely divisible, is to assert that it is reducible to parts 
which no conceivable power can divide ; and this verbal 



ULTIMATE- SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 51 

supposition can no more be represented in thought than the 
other. For each of such ultimate parts, did they exist, must 
have an under and an upper surface, a right and a left side, 
like any larger fragment. Now it is impossible to imagine 
its sides so near that no plane of section can be conceived be- 
tween them; and however great be the assumed force of 
cohesion, it is impossible to shut out the idea of a greater 
force capable of overcoming it. So that to human intelli- 
gence the one hypothesis is no more acceptable than the 
other ; and yet the conclusion that one or other must agree 
with the fact, seems to human intelligence unavoidable. 

Again, leaving this insoluble question, let us ask whether 
substance has, in reality, anything like that extended solidity 
which it presents to our consciousness. The portion of space 
occupied by a piece of metal, seems to eyes and fingers per- 
fectly filled: we perceive a homogeneous, resisting mass, 
without any breach of continuity. Shall we then say that 
Matter is as actually solid as it appears ? Shall we say that 
whether it consists of an infinitely divisible element or of 
ultimate units incapable of further division, its parts are 
everywhere in actual contact ? To assert as much entangles 
us in insuperable difficulties. Were Matter thus absolutely 
solid, it would be, what it is not — absolutely incompressible ; 
since compressibility, implying the nearer approach of con- 
stituent parts, is not thinkable unless, there is unoccupied 
space between the parts. Nor is this all. It is an estab- 
lished mechanical truth, that if a body, moving at a given 
velocity, strikes an equal body at rest in such wise that the 
two move on together, their joint velocity will be but half 
that of the striking body. Now it is a law of which the 
negation is inconceivable, that in passing from any one 
degree of magnitude to any other, all intermediate degrees 
must be passed through. Or, in the case before us, a body 
moving at velocity 4, cannot, by collision, be reduced to 
velocity 2, without passing through all velocities between 4 
and 2. But were Matter truly solid — were its units abso- 









52 ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 

lutely incompressible and in absolute contact — this " law of 
continuity," as it is called, would be broken in every case 
of collision. For when, of two such units, one moving at 
velocity 4 strikes another at rest, the striking unit must have 
its velocity 4 instantaneously reduced to velocity 2 ; must 
pass from velocity 4 to velocity 2 without any lapse of time, 
and without passing through intermediate velocities ; must be 
moving with velocities 4 and 2 at the same instant, which is 
impossible. 

The supposition that Matter is absolutely solid being 
untenable, there presents itself the Newtonian, supposition, 
that it consists of solid atoms not in contact but acting on 
each other by attractive and repulsive forces, varying with 
the distances. To assume this, however, merely shifts the 
difficulty : the problem is simply transferred from the aggre- 
gated masses of matter to these hypothetical atoms. For 
granting that Matter, as we perceive it, is made up of such dense 
extended units surrounded by atmospheres of force, the 
question still arises — What is the constitution of these units ? 
We have no alternative but to regard each of them as a 
small piece of matter. Looked at through a mental micro- 
scope, each becomes a mass of substance such as we have just 
been contemplating. Exactly the same inquiries may be 
made respecting the parts of which each atom consists ; while 
exactly the same difficulties stand in the way of every answer. 
And manifestly, even were the hypothetical atom assumed to 
consist of still minuter ones, the difficulty would re- appear at 
the next step ; nor could it be got rid of even by an infinite 
series of such assumptions. 

Boscovich's conception yet remains to us. Seeing that 
Matter could not, as Leibnitz suggested, be composed of un- 
extended monads (since the juxta-position of an infinity of 
points having no extension, could not produce that extension 
which matter possesses) ; and perceiving objections to the 
view entertained by Newton ; Boscovich proposed an inter- 
mediate theory, uniting, as he considered, the advantages of 






ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 53 

both and avoiding their difficulties. His theory is, that the 
constituents of Matter are centres of force — points without 
dimensions, which attract and repel each other in suchwise as 
to be kept at specific distances apart. And he argues, ma- 
thematically, that the forces possessed by such centres might 
so vary with the distances, that under given conditions the 
centres would remain in stable equilibrium with definite 
interspaces ; and yet, under other conditions, would maintain 
larger or smaller interspaces. This speculation however, 
ingeniously as it is elaborated, and eluding though it does 
various difficulties, posits a proposition which cannot by any 
effort be represented in thought : it escapes all the inconceiv- 
abilities above indicated, by merging them in the one 
inconceivability with which it sets out. A centre of force 
absolutely without extension is unthinkable : answering to 
these words we can form nothing more than a symbolic con- 
ception of the illegitimate order. The idea of resistance 
cannot be separated in. thought from the idea of an extended 
body which offers resistance. To suppose that central forces 
can reside in points not infinitesimally small but occupying 
no space whatever — points having position only, with nothing 
to mark their position — points in no respect distinguishable 
from the surrounding points that are not centres of force ; — to 
suppose this, is utterly beyond human power. 

Here it may possibly be said, that though all hypotheses 
respecting the constitution of Matter commit us to inconceiv- 
able conclusions when logically developed, yet we have 
reason to think that one of them corresponds with the fact. 
Though the conception of Matter as consisting of dense indi- 
visible units, is symbolic and incapable of being completely 
thought out, it may yet be supposed to find indirect verifica- 
tion in the truths of chemistry. These, it is argued, necessi- 
tate the belief that Matter consists of particles of specific 
weights, and therefore of specific sizes. The general law of 
definite proportions seems impossible on any other condition 
than the existence of ultimate atoms ; and though the com- 



54 ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 

bining weights of the respective elements are termed by- 
chemists their " equivalents," for the purpose of avoiding a 
questionable assumption, we are unable to think of the combina- 
tion of such definite weights, without supposing it to take 
place between definite numbers of definite particles. And 
thus it would appear that the Newtonian view is at any rate 
preferable to that of Boscovich. A disciple of Bosco- 

vich, however, may reply that his master's theory is in- 
volved in that of Newton; and cannot indeed be escaped. 
"What," he may ask, "is it that holds together the parts 
of these ultimate atoms?". "A cohesive force," his oppo- 
nent must answer. "And what," he may continue, "is it 
that holds together the parts of any fragments into 
which, by sufficient force, an ultimate atom might be 
broken?" Again the answer must be — a cohesive force. 
" And what," he may still ask, " if the ultimate atom were, 
as we can imagine it to be, reduced to parts as small in pro- 
portion to it, as it is in proportion to a tangible mass of 
matter — what must give each part the ability to sustain itself, 
and to occupy space ? " Still there is no answer but — a cohe- 
sive force. Carry the process in thought as far as we may, 
until the extension of the parts is less than can be imagined, 
we still cannot escape the admission of forces by which the 
extension is upheld; and we can find no limit until we 
arrive at the conception of centres of force without any 
extension. 

Matter then, in its ultimate nature, is as absolutely incom- 
prehensible as Space and Time. Frame what suppositions we 
may, we find on tracing out their implications that they leave 
us nothing but a choice between opposite absurdities, {-j* 

§ 17. A body impelled by the hand is clearly perceived to 
move, and to move in a definite direction : there seems at first 
sight no possibility of doubting that its motion is real, or that 
it is towards a given point. Yet it is easy to show that we 
not only may be, but usually are, quite wrong in both these 



ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 55 

judgments. Here, for instance, is a ship which, for simpli- 
city's sake, we will suppose to be anchored at the equator 
with her head to the West. When the captain walks from 
stem to stern, in what direction does he move ? East is the 
obvious answer — an answer which for the moment may pass 
without criticism. But now the anchor is heaved, and the 
vessel sails to the West with a velocity equal to that at which 
the captain walks. In what direction does he now move 
when he goes from stem to stern ? You cannot say East, for 
the vessel is carrying him as fast towards the West as he 
walks to the East ; and you cannot say West for the converse 
reason. In respect to surrounding space he is stationary ; 
though to all on board the ship he seems to be moving. But 
now are we quite sure of this conclusion? — Is he really station- 
ary ? When we take into account the Earth's motion round 
its axis, we find that instead of being stationary he is travel- 
ling at the rate of 1000 miles per hour to the East ; so that 
neither the perception of one who looks at him, nor the infer- 
ence of one who allows for the ship's motion, is anything like 
the truth. Nor indeed, on further consideration, shall we find 
this revised conclusion to be much better. For we have for- 
gotten to allow for the Earth's motion in its orbit. This 
being some 68,000 miles per hour, it follows that, assuming 
the time to be midday, he is moving, not at the rate of 1000 
miles per hour to the East, but at the rate of 67,000 miles per 
hour to the West. Nay, not even now have we discovered 
the true rate and the true direction of his movement. With 
the Earth's progress in its orbit, we have to join that of the 
whole Solar system towards the constellation Hercules ; and 
when we do this, we perceive that he is moving neither East 
nor West, but in a line inclined to the plane of the Ecliptic, 
and at a velocity greater or less (according to the time of the 
year) than that above named. To which let us add, that 
were the dynamic arrangements of our sidereal system fully 
known to us, we should probably discover the direction and 
rate of his actual movement to differ considerably even from 



56 ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 

these. How illusive are our ideas of Motion, is thus made 

sufficiently manifest. That which seems moving proves to be 
stationary ; that which seems stationary proves to be moving; 
while that which we conclude to be going rapidly in one 
direction, turns out to be going much more rapidly in the 
opposite direction. And so we are taught that what we are 
conscious of is not the real motion of any object, either in its 
rate or direction ; but merely its motion as measured from an 
assigned position — either the position we ourselves occupy or 

I some other. Yet in this very process of concluding that the 

motions we perceive are not the real motions, we tacitly 
assume that there are real motions. In revising our success- 
ive judgments concerning a body's course or velocity, we take 
for granted that there is an actual course and an actual 
velocity — we take for granted that there are fixed points in 
space with respect to which all motions are absolute ; and we 
find it impossible to rid ourselves of this idea. Nevertheless, 
absolute motion cannot even be imagined, much less known. 
Motion as taking place apart from those limitations of space 
which we habitually associate with it, is totally unthinkable. 
For motion is change of place ; but in unlimited space, change 
of place is inconceivable, because place itself is inconceivable. 
Place can be conceived only by reference to other places ; and 
in the absence of objects dispersed through space, a place 
could be conceived only in relation to the limits of space ; 
whence it follows that in unlimited space, place cannot be 
conceived — all places must be equidistant from boundaries 
that do not exist. Thus while we are obliged to think that 
there is an absolute motion, we find absolute motion incom- 
prehensible. 

Another insuperable difficulty presents itself when we 
contemplate the transfer of Motion. Habit blinds us to the 
marvelousness of this phenomenon. Familiar with the fact 
from childhood, we see nothing remarkable in the ability of a 
moving thing to generate movement in a thing that is 
stationary. It is, however, impossible to understand it. In 



ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 57 

what respect does a body after impact differ from itself before 
impact ? What is this added to it which does not sensibly 
affect any of its properties and yet enables it to traverse 
space ? Here is an object at rest and here is the same object 
moving. In the one state it has no tendency to change its 
place ; but in the other it is obliged at each instant to assume 
a new position. What is it which will for ever go on pro- 
ducing this effect without being exhausted ? and how does it 
dwell in the object? The motion you say has been com- 
municated. But how ? — What has been communicated ? 
The striking body has not transferred a thing to the body 
struck; and it is equally out of the question to say that it 
has transferred an attribute. What then has it transferred ? 
Once more there is the old puzzle concerning the connexion 
between Motion and Rest. We daily witness the gradual 
retardation and final stoppage of things projected from the 
hand or otherwise impelled ; and we equally often witness 
the change from Rest to Motion produced by the application 
of force. But truly to represent these transitions in thought, 
we find impossible. For a breach of the law of continuity 
seems necessarily involved; and yet no breach of it is con- 
ceivable. A body travelling at a given velocity cannot be 
brought to a state of rest, or no velocity, without passing 
through all intermediate velocities. At first sight nothing 
seems easier than to imagine it doing this. It is quite possi- 
ble to think of its motion as diminishing insensibly until 
it becomes infinitesimal ; and many will think equally possi- 
ble to pass in thought from infinitesimal motion to no 
motion. But this is an error. Mentally follow out the 
decreasing velocity as long as you please, and there still 
remains some velocity. Halve and again halve the rate of 
movement for ever, yet movement still exists ; and the small- 
est movement is separated by an impassable gap from no 
movement. As something, however minute, is infinitely 
great in comparison with nothing ; so is even the least con- 
ceivable motion, infinite as compared with rest. The 
4* 




58 ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 

converse perplexities attendant on the transition from Rest to 
Motion, need not be specified. These, equally with the forego- 
ing, show us that though we are obliged to think of such 
changes as actually occurring, their occurrence cannot be 
realized. 

Thus neither when considered in connexion with Space, 
nor when considered in connexion with Matter, nor when 
considered in connexion with Rest, do we find that Motion is 
truly cognizable. All efforts to understand its essential 
nature do but bring us to alternative impossibilities of 
thought. 

§ 18. On lifting a chair, the force exerted we regard as 
equal to that antagonistic force called the weight of the 
chair ; and we cannot think of these as equal without think- 
ing of them as like in kind ; since equality is conceivable only 
between things that are connatural. The axiom that action 
and reaction are equal and in opposite directions, commonly 
exemplified by this very instance of muscular effort versus 
weight, cannot be mentally realized on any other condition. 
Yet, contrariwise, it is incredible that the force as existing in 
the chair really resembles the force as present to our minds. 
It scarcely needs to point out that the weight of the chair 
produces in us various feelings according as we support it by a 
single finger, or the whole hand, or the leg ; and hence 
to argue that as it cannot be like all these sensations there is 
no reason to believe it like any. It suffices to remark that 
since the force as known to us is an affection of consciousness, 
we cannot conceive the force existing in the chair under the 
same form without endowing the chair with consciousness. 
So that it is absurd to think of Force as in itself like our 
sensation of it, and yet necessary so to think of it if we 
realize it in consciousness at all. 

How, again, can we understand the connexion between 
Force and Matter ? Matter is known to us only through its 
manifestations of Force : our ultimate test of Matter is the 



ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 59 

ability to resist : abstract its resistance and there remains 
nothing but empty extension. Yet, on the other hand, resist- 
ance is equally unthinkable apart from Matter — apart from 
something extended. Not only, as pointed out some pages 
back, are centres of force devoid of extension unimaginable ; 
but, as an inevitable corollary, we cannot imagine either 
extended or unextended centres of force to attract and repel 
other such centres at a distance, without the intermediation 
of some kind of matter. We have here to remark, what 
could not without anticipation be remarked when treating of 
Matter, that the hypothesis of Newton, equally with that of 
Boscovich, is open to the charge that it supposes one thing to 
act upon another through a space which is absolutely empty 
— a supposition which cannot be represented in thought. 
This charge is indeed met by the introduction of a hypotheti- 
cal fluid existing between the atoms or centres. But the 
problem is not thus solved : it is simply shifted, and re-appears 
when the constitution of this fluid is inquired into. How 

impossible it is to elude the difficulty presented by the transfer 
of Force through space, is best seen in the case of astronomical 
forces. The Sun acts upon us in such way as to produce the 
sensations of light and heat; and we have ascertained that 
between the cause as existing in the Sun, and the effect as 
experienced on the Earth, a lapse of about eight minutes 
occurs : whence unavoidably result in us, the conceptions of 
both a force and a motion. So that for the assumption of a 
luminiferous ether, there is the defence, not only that the 
exercise of force through 95,000,000 of miles of absolute 
vacuum is inconceivable, but also that it is impossible to con- 
ceive motion in the absence of something moved. Similarly 
in the case of gravitation. Newton described himself as 
unable to think that the attraction of one body for another at 
a distance, could be exerted in the absence of an intervening 
medium. But now let us ask how much the forwarder we 
are if an intervening medium be assumed. This ether whose 
undulations according to the received hypothesis constitute 




60 ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 

heat and light, and which is the vehicle of gravitation — how 
is it constituted ? We must regard it, in the way that phy- 
sicists do regard it, as composed of atoms which attract and 
repel each other — infinitesimal it may be in comparison with 
those of ordinary matter, but still atoms. And remembering 
that this ether is imponderable, we are obliged to conclude 
that the ratio between the interspaces of these atoms and the 
atoms themselves, is incomm ensurably greater than the like 
ratio in ponderable matter ; else the densities could hot be 
incommensurable. Instead then of a direct action by the Sun 
upon the Earth without anything intervening, we have to 
conceive the Sun's action propagated through a medium 
whose molecules are probably as small relatively to their inter- 
spaces as are the Sun and Earth compared with the space 
between them : we have to conceive these infinitesimal mole- 
cules acting on each other through absolutely vacant spaces 
which are immense in comparison with their own dimensions. 
How is this conception easier than the other ? We still have 
mentally to represent a body as acting where it is not, and in 
the absence of anything by which its action may be transfer- 
red ; and what matters it whether this takes place on a large 
or a small scale ? We see therefore that the exercise of 

Force is altogether unintelligible. We cannot imagine it 
except through the instrumentality of something having 
extension ; and yet when we have assumed this something, 
we find the perplexity is not got rid of but only postponed. 
We are obliged to conclude that matter, whether ponderable 
or imponderable, and whether aggregated or in its hypotheti 
cal units, acts upon matter through absolutely vacant space ; 
and yet this conclusion is positively unthinkable. 

Again, Light, Heat, Gravitation and all central forces, vary 
inversely as the squares of the distances ; and physicists in 
their investigations assume that the units of matter act upon 
each other according to the same law — an assumption which 
indeed they are obliged to make ; since this law is not simply 
an empirical one, but one deducible mathematically from the 



ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 61 

relations of space — one of which the negation is inconceivable. 
But now, in any mass of matter which is in internal equilib- 
rium, what must follow ? The attractions and repulsions of 
the constituent atoms are balanced. Being balanced, the 
atoms remain at their present distances ; and the mass of 
matter neither expands nor contracts. But if the forces 
with which two adjacent atoms attract and repel each other 
both vary inversely as the squares of the distances, as they 
must ; and if they are in equilibrium at their present distances, 
as they are ; then, necessarily, they will be in equilibrium at all 
other distances. Let the atoms be twice as far apart, and 
their attractions and repulsions will both be reduced to one 
fourth of their present amounts. Let them be brought 
within half the distance, and their attractions and repulsions 
will both be quadrupled. Whence it follows that this matter 
will as readily as not assume any other density ; and can 
offer no resistance to any external agents. Thus we are 
obliged to say that these antagonist molecular forces do not 
both vary inversely as the squares of the distances, which is 
unthinkable ; or else that matter does not possess that attri- 
bute of resistance by which alone we distinguish it from 
empty space, which is absurd. 

While then it is impossible to form any idea of Force 
in itself, it is equally impossible to comprehend either its 
mode of exercise or its law of variation. 

§ 19. Turning now from the outer to the inner world, let 
us contemplate, not the agencies to which we ascribe our 
subjective modifications, but the subjective modifications 
themselves. These constitute a series. Difficult as we find 
it distinctly to separate and individualize them, it is neverthe- 
less beyond question that our states of consciousness occur in 
succession. 

Is this chain of states of consciousness infinite or finite ? 
We cannot say infinite ; not only because we have indirectly 
reached the conclusion that there was a period when it com- 



62 ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 

menced, but also because all infinity is inconceivable — an 
infinite series included. We cannot say finite ; for we nave 
no knowledge of either of its ends. Go back in memory as 
far as we may, we are* wholly unable to identify our first 
states of consciousness : the perspective of our thoughts 
vanishes in a dim obscurity where we can make out nothing. 
Similarly at the other extreme. We have no immediate 
knowledge of a termination to the series at a future time ; and 
we cannot really lay hold of that temporary termination of 
the series reached at the present moment. For the state of 
consciousness recognized by us as our last, is not truly our 
last. That any mental affection may be contemplated as one 
of the series, it must be remembered — represented in thought, 
not presented. The truly last state of consciousness is that 
which is passing in the very act of contemplating a state 
just past — that in which we are thinking of the one before as 
the last. So that the proximate end of the chain eludes us, 
as well as the remote end. 

" But," it may be said, " though we cannot directly know 
consciousness to be finite in duration, because neither of its 
limits can be actually reached ; yet we can very well conceive 
it to be so." ISTo : not even this is true. In the first place, 
we cannot conceive the terminations of that consciousness 
which alone we really know — our own — any more than we 
can perceive its terminations. For in truth the two acts are 
here one. In either case such terminations must be, as above 
said, not presented in thought, but represented; and they 
must be represented as in the act of occurring. Now to 
represent the termination of consciousness as occurring 
in ourselves, is to think of ourselves as contemplating the 
cessation of the last state of consciousness ; and this implies 
a supposed continuance of consciousness after its last 
state, which is absurd. In the second place, if we regard 
the matter objectively — if we study the phenomena as 
occurring in others, or in the abstract, we are equally foiled. 
Consciousness implies perpetual change and the perpetual 



ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 63 

establishment of relations between its successive phases. To 
be known at all, any mental affection must be known as such or 
such — 'as like these foregoing ones or unlike those : if it is not 
thought of in connexion with others — not distinguished or 
identified by comparison with others, it is not recognized — is 
not a state of consciousness at all. A last state of conscious- 
ness, then, like any other, can exist only through a percep- 
tion of its relations to previous states. But such perception of 
its relations must constitute a state later than the last, which 
is a contradiction. Or to put the difficulty in another form : — 
If ceaseless change of state is the condition on which alone 
consciousness exists, then when the supposed last state 
has been reached by the completion of the preceding change, 
change has ceased ; therefore consciousness has ceased ; there- 
fore the supposed last state is not a state of consciousness at 
all ; therefore there can be no last state of consciousness. In 
short, the perplexity is like that presented by the relations of 
Motion and Hest. As we found it was impossible really to 
conceive Best becoming Motion or Motion becoming Rest ; so 
here we find it is impossible really to conceive either the 
beginning or the ending of those changes which constitute 
consciousness. 

Hence, while we are unable either to believe or to conceive 
that the duration of consciousness is infinite, we are equally 
unable either to know it as finite, or to conceive it as finite. 

§ 20. Nor do we meet with any greater success when, in- 
stead of the extent of consciousness, we consider its substance. 
The question — What is this that thinks ? admits of no better 
solution than the question to which we have just found none 
but inconceivable answers. 

The existence of each individual as known to himself, has 
been always held by mankind at large, the most incontro- 
vertible of truths. To say — " I am as sure of it as I am sure 
that I exist," is, in common speech, the most emphatic ex- 
pression of certainty. And this fact of personal existence, 



64 ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 

testified to by the universal consciousness of men, has been 
made the basis of sundry philosophies ; whence may be drawn 
the inference, that it is held by thinkers, as well as by the 
yulgar, to be beyond all facts unquestionable. 

Belief in the reality of self, is, indeed, a belief which no 
hypothesis enables us to escape. What shall we say of these 
successive impressions and ideas which constitute conscious- 
ness ? Shall we say that they are the affections of something 
i called mind, which, as being the subject of them, is the real 
ego ? If we say this, we manifestly imply that the ego is an 
entity. Shall we assert that these impressions and ideas are not 
the mere superficial changes wrought on some thinking sub- 
stance, but are themselves the very body of this substance — 
are severally the modified forms which it from moment to 
moment assumes ? This hypothesis, equally with the fore- 
going, implies that the individual exists as a permanent and 
distinct being ; since modifications necessarily involve some- 
thing modified. Shall we then betake ourselves to the sceptic's 
position, and argue that we know nothing more than our im- 
pressions and ideas themselves — that these are to us the only 
existences ; and that the personality said to underlie them is a 
mere fiction ? We do not even thus escape ; since this pro- 
position, verbally intelligible but really unthinkable, itself 
makes the assumption which it professes to repudiate. For 
how can consciousness be wholly resolved into impressions and 
ideas, when an impression of necessity implies something im- 
pressed ? Or again, how can the sceptic who has decomposed 
his consciousness into impressions and ideas, explain the fact 
that he considers them as Ms impressions and ideas ? Or 
once more, if, as he must, he admits that he has an impression 
of his personal existence, what warrant can he show for re- 
jecting this impression as unreal while he accepts all his other 
impressions as real ? Unless he can give satisfactory answers 
to these queries, which he cannot, he must abandon his con- 
clusions ; and must admit the reality of the individual mind. 
But now, unavoidable as is this belief — established though 



ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 65 

it is, not only by the assent of mankind at large, endorsed by 
divers philosophers, but by the suicide of the sceptical argu- 
ment — it is yet a belief admitting of no justification by reason : 
nay, indeed, it is a belief which reason, when pressed for a 
distinct answer, rejects. One of the most recent writers who 
has touched upon this question — Mr Mansel — does indeed 
contend that in the consciousness of self, we have a piece of 
real knowledge. The validity of immediate intuition he 
holds in this case unquestionable : remarking that "let 
system-makers say what they will, the unsophisticated sense 
of mankind refuses to acknowledge that mind is but a bundle 
of states of consciousness, as matter is (possibly) a bundle of 
sensible qualities." On which position the obvious comment 
is, that it does not seem altogether a consistent one for a 
Kantist, who pays but small respect to " the unsophisticated 
sense of mankind" when it testifies to the objectivity of space. 
Passing over this, however, it may readily be shown that a 
cognition of self, properly so called, is absolutely negatived 
by the laws of thought. The fundamental condition to all 
consciousness, emphatically insisted upon by Mr Mansel in 
common with Sir William Hamilton and others, is the anti- 
thesis of subject and object. And on this " primitive dualism 
of consciousness/' " from which the explanations of philosophy 
must take their start," Mr Mansel founds his refutation of the 
German absolutists. But now, what is the corollary from this 
doctrine, as bearing on the consciousness of self? The mental 
act in which self is known, implies, like every other mental 
act, a perceiving subject and a perceived object. If, then, the 
object perceived is self, what is the subject that perceives ? or 
if it is the true self which thinks, what other self can it be 
that is thought of ? Clearly, a true cognition of self implies 
a state in which the knowing and the known are one — in 
which subject and object are identified ; and this Mr Mansel 
rightly holds to be the annihilation of both. 

So that the personality of which each is conscious, and of 
which the existence is to each a fact beyond all others the most 



6(3 ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 

certain, is yet a thing which cannot truly be known at all : 
knowledge of it is forbidden by the very nature of thought. 

§ 21. Ultimate Scientific Ideas, then, are all representative 
of realities that cannot be comprehended. After no matter 
how great a progress in the colligation of facts and the estab- 
lishment of generalizations ever wider and wider — after the 
merging of limited and derivative truths in truths that are 
larger and deeper has been carried no matter how far ; the 
fundamental truth remains as much beyond reach as ever. The 
explanation of that which is explicable, does but bring out 
into greater clearness the inexplicableness of that which re- 
mains behind. Alike in the external and the internal worlds, 
the man of science sees himself in the midst of perpetual changes 
of which he can discover neither the beginning nor the end. 
If, tracing back the evolution of things, he allows himself to 
entertain the hypothesis that the Universe once existed in a 
diffused form, he finds it utterly impossible to conceive how 
this came to be so ; and equally, if he speculates on the 
future, he can assign no limit to the grand succession of phe- 
nomena ever unfolding themselves before him. In like 
manner if he looks inward, he perceives that both ends of the 
thread of consciousness are beyond his grasp; nay, even 
beyond his power to think of as having existed or as existing 
in time to come. When, again, he turns from the succession of 
phenomena, external or internal, to their intrinsic nature, he 
is just as much at fault. Supposing him in every case able to 
resolve the appearances, properties, and movements of things, 
into manifestations of Force in Space and Time ; he still finds 
that Force, Space, and Time pass all understanding. Simi- 
larly, though the analysis of mental actions may finally bring 
him down to sensations, as the original materials out of which 
all thought is woven, yet he is little forwarder ; for he can 
give no account either of sensations themselves or of that 
something which is conscious of sensations. Objective and 
subjective things he thus ascertains to be alike inscrutable in 



ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 67 

their substance and genesis. In all directions his investiga- 
tions eventually bring him face to face with an insoluble 
enigma ; and he ever more clearly perceives it to be an insoluble 
enigma. He learns at once the greatness and the littleness of 
the human intellect — its power in dealing with all that comes 
within the range of experience ; its impotence in dealing 
with all that transcends experience. He realizes with a 
special vividness the utter incomprehensibleness of the simplest 
fact, considered in itself. He, more than any other, truly 
knows that in its ultimate essence nothing can be known. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 

§ 22. The same conclusion is thus arrived at, from which- 
ever point we set out. If, respecting the origin and nature 
of things, we make some assumption, we find that through an 
inexorable logic it inevitably commits us to alternative impos- 
sibilities of thought ; and this holds true of every assumption 
that can be imagined. If, contrariwise, we make no assump- 
tion, but set out from the sensible properties of surrounding 
objects, and, ascertaining their special laws of dependence, go 
on to merge these in laws more and more general, until we 
bring them all under some most general laws ; we still find our- 
selves as far arev^r^irom knowing what it is which manifests 
these properties to us : clearly as we seem to know it, our 
apparent knowledge proves on examination to be utterly irre- 
concilable with itself. Ultimate religious ideas and ultimate 
scientific ideas, alike turn out to be merely symbols of the 
actual, not cognitions of it. 

The conviction, so reached, that human intelligence is 
incapable of absolute knowledge, is one that has been slowly 
gaming ground as civilization has advanced. Each new 
ontological theory, from time to time propounded in lieu of 
previous ones shown to be untenable, has been followed by a 
new criticism leading to a new scepticism. All possible con- 
ceptions have been one by one tried and found wanting ; and 



THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 69 

so the entire field of speculation has been gradually exhausted 
without positive result: the only result arrived at being 
the negative one above stated — that the reality existing 
behind all appearances is, and must ever be, unknown. To 
this conclusion almost every thinker of note has subscribed. 
"With the exception/' says Sir William Hamilton, "of a few 
late Absolutist theorisers in Germany, this is, perhaps, the 
truth of all others most harmoniously re-echoed by every 
philosopher of every school." And among these he names — 
Protagoras, Aristotle, St. Augustin, Boethius, Averroes, 
Albertus Magnus, Gerson, Leo Hebraeus, Melancthon, Sca- 
liger, Francis Piccolomini, Giordano Bruno, Campanella, 
Bacon, Spinoza, Newton, Kant. 

It yet remains to point out how this belief may be estab- 
lished rationally, as well as empirically. Not only is it that, 
as in the earlier thinkers above named, a vague perception of 
the inscrutableness of things in themselves results from dis- 
covering the illusiveness of sense-impressions ; and not only 
is it that, as shown in the foregoing chapters, definite experi- 
ments evolve alternative impossibilities of thought out of 
every ultimate conception we can frame ; but it is that the 
relativity of our knowledge is demonstrable analytically. 
The induction drawn from general and special experiences, 
may be confirmed by a deduction from the nature of our 
intelligence. Two ways of reaching such a deduction exist. 
Proof that our cognitions are not, and never can be, absolute, 
is obtainable by analyzing either the product of thought, or 
the process of thought. Let us analyze each. 

§ 23. If, when walking through the fields some day in 
September, you hear a rustle a few yards in advance, and 
on observing the ditch-side where it occurs, see the herbage 
agitated, you will probably turn towards the spot to learn by 
what this sound and motion are produced. As you approach 
there flutters into the ditch, a partridge; on seeing which 



70 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 

your curiosity is satisfied—you have what you call an explan- 
ation of the appearances. The explanation, mark, amounts 
to this ; that whereas throughout life you have had countless 
experiences of disturbance among small stationary bodies, 
accompanying the movement of other bodies among them, 
and have generalized the relation between such disturbances 
and such movements, you consider this particular disturbance 
explained, on finding it to present, an instance of the like 
relation. Suppose you catch the partridge ; and, wish- 

ing to ascertain why it did not escape, examine it, and find 
at one spot, a slight trace of blood upon its feathers. You 
now understand, as you say, what has disabled the partridge. 
It has been wounded by a sportsman — adds another case to 
the many cases already seen by you, of birds being killed or 
injured by the shot discharged at them from fowling-pieces. 
And in assimilating this case to other such cases, consists 
your understanding of it. But now, on consideration, a 

difficulty suggests itself. Only a single shot has struck the 
partridge, and that not in a. vital place : the wings are unin- 
jured, as are also those muscles which move them ; and the 
creature proves by its struggles that it has abundant strength. 
Why then, you inquire of yourself, does it not fly ? Occasion 
favouring, you put the question to an anatomist, who fur- 
nishes you with a solution. He points out that this solitary 
shot has passed close to the place at which the nerve supplying 
the wing-muscles of one side, diverges from the spine ; and that 
a slight injury to this nerve, extending even to the rupture of 
a few fibres, may, by preventing a perfect co-ordination in the 
actions of the two wings, destroy the power of flight. You are 
no longer puzzled. But what has happened? — what has 
changed your state from one of perplexity to one of compre- 
hension ? Simply the disclosure of a class of previously 
known cases, along with which you can include this case. 
The connexion between lesions of the nervous system and 
paralysis of limbs has been already many times brought 



THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 71 

■ 

under your notice ; and you here find a relation of cause and 
effect that is essentially similar. 

Let us suppose you are led on to make further inquiries 
concerning organic actions, which, conspicuous and remarkable 
as they are, you had not before cared to understand. How 
is respiration effected? you ask — why does air periodically 
rush into the lungs ? The answer is that in the higher verte- 
brata, as in ourselves, influx of air is caused by an enlarge- 
ment of the thoracic cavity, due, partly to depression of the 
diaphragm, partly to elevation of the ribs. But how does 
elevation of the ribs enlarge the cavity? In reply the 
anatomist shows you that the plane of each pair of ribs 
makes an acute angle with the spine ; that this angle widens 
when the moveable ends of the ribs are raised ; and he makes 
you realize the consequent dilatation of the cavity, by point- 
ing out how the area of a parallelogram increases as its angles 
approach to right angles — you understand this special fact 
when you see it to be an instance of a general geometrical 
fact. There still arises, however, the question — why does the 
air rush into this enlarged cavity ? To which comes the 
answer that, when the thoracic cavity is enlarged, the con- 
tained air, partially relieved from pressure, expands, and so loses 
some of its resisting power ; that hence it opposes to the pres- 
sure of the external air a less pressure ; and that as air, like 
every other fluid, presses equally in all directions, motion must 
result along any line in which the resistance is less than 
elsewhere; whence follows an inward current. And this 
interpretation you recognize as one, when a few facts of like 
kind, exhibited more plainly in a visible fluid such as water, 
are cited in illustration. Again, when it was pointed out 

that the limbs are compound levers acting in essentially the 
same way as levers of iron or wood, you might consider your- 
self as having obtained a partial rationale of animal move- 
ments. The contraction of a muscle, seeming before utterly 
unaccountable, would seem less unaccountable were you shown 



72 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 

how, by a galvanic current, a series of soft iron magnets could 
be made to shorten itself, through the attraction of each 
magnet for its neighbours : — an alleged analogy which 
especially answers the purpose of our argument ; since, 
whether real or fancied, it equally illustrates the mental 
illumination that results on finding a class of cases within 
which a particular case may possibly be included. And it 
may be further noted how, in the instance here named, an ad- 
ditional feeling of comprehension arises on remembering that 
the influence conveyed through the nerves to the muscles, is, 
though not positively electric, yet a form of force nearly 
allied to the electric. Similarly when you learn that 

animal heat arises from chemical combination, and so is 
evolved as heat is evolved in other chemical combinations — 
when you learn that the absorption of nutrient fluids through 
the coats of the intestines, is an instance of osmotic action — 
when you learn that the changes undergone by food during 
digestion, are like changes artificially producible in the labora- 
tory ; you regard yourself as knowing something about the 
natures of these phenomena. 

Observe now what we have been doing. Turning to the 
general question, let us note where these successive interpret- 
ations have carried us. We began with quite special and 
concrete facts. In explaining each, and afterwards explain- 
ing the more general facts of which they are instances, we 
have got down to certain highly general facts: — to a geome- 
trical principle or property of space, to a simple law of me- 
chanical action, to a law of fluid equilibrium— to truths in 
physics, in chemistry, in thermology, in electricity. The 
particular phenomena with which we set out, have been 
merged in larger and larger groups of phenomena ; and as 
they have been so merged, we have arrived at solutions that 
we consider profound in proportion as this process has been 
carried far. Still deeper explanations are simply further 
steps in the same direction. When, for instance, it is asked 



THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 73 

why the law of action of the lever ip what it is, or why fluid 
equilibrium and fluid motion exhibit the relations which they 
do, the answer furnished by mathematicians consists in the 
disclosure of the principle of virtual velocities — a principle 
holding true alike in fluids and solids — a principle under 
which the others are comprehended. And similarly, the in- 
sight obtained into the phenomena of chemical combination, 
heat, electricity, &c, implies that a rationale of them, when 
found, will be the exposition of some highly general fact re- 
specting the constitution of matter, of which chemical, 
electrical, and thermal facts, are merely different mani- 
festations. 

Is this process limited or unlimited ? Can we go on for 
ever explaining classes of facts by including them in larger 
classes ; or must we eventually come to a largest class ? The 
supposition that the process is unlimited, were any one ab- 
surd enough to espouse it, would still imply that an ultimate 
explanation could not be reached ; since infinite time would 
be required to reach it. While the unavoidable conclusion 
that it is limited (proved not only by the finite sphere of 
observation open to us, but also by the diminution in the 
number of generalizations that necessarily accompanies in- 
crease of their breadth) equally implies that the ultimate 
fact cannot be understood. For if the successively deeper in- 
terpretations of nature which constitute advancing knowledge, 
are merely successive inclusions of special truths in general 
truths, and of general truths in truths still more general ; it 
obviously follows that the most general truth, not admitting 
of inclusion in any other, does no admit of interpretation. 
Manifestly, as the most general cognition at which we arrive 
cannot be reduced to a more general one, it cannot be under- 
stood. Of necessity, therefore, explanation must eventually 
bring us down to the inexplicable. The deepest truth which 
we can get at, must be unaccountable. Comprehension must 
become something other than comprehension, before the ulti- 
mate fact can be comprehended. 
5 



74 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 

§ 24. The inference which we thus find forced upon us 
when we analyze the product of thought, as exhibited ob- 
jectively in scientific generalizations, is equally forced upon us 
by an analysis of the process of thought, as exhibited sub- 
jectively in consciousness. The demonstration of the neces- 
sarily relative character of our knowledge, as deduced from 
the nature of intelligence, has been brought to its most 
definite shape by Sir William Hamilton. I cannot here do 
better than extract from his essay on the "Philosophy of 
the Unconditioned," the passage^containing the substance of 
his doctrine. 

" The mind can conceive," he argues, " and consequently 
can know, only the limited, and the conditionally limited. The 
unconditionally unlimited, or the Infinite, the uncondition- 
ally limited, or the Absolute, cannot positively be construed to 
the mind ; they can be conceived, only by a thinking away 
from, or abstraction of, those very conditions under which 
thought itself is realized ; consequently, the notion of the 
Unconditioned is only negative, — negative of the conceivable 
itself. For example, on the one hand we can positively conceive, 
neither an absolute whole, that is, a whole so great, that we 
cannot also conceive it as a relative part of a still greater 
whole ; nor an absolute part, that is, a part so small, that we 
cannot also conceive it as a relative whole, divisible into smaller 
parts. On the other hand, we cannot positively represent, or 
realize, or construe to the mind (as here understanding and 
imagination coincide), an infinite whole, for this could only 
be done by the infinite synthesis in thought of finite wholes, 
which would itself require an infinite time for its accomplish- 
ment ; nor, for the same reason, can we follow out in thought 
an infinite divisibility of parts. The result is the same, 
whether we apply the process to limitation in space, in time, 
or in degree. The unconditional negation, and the uncondi- 
tional afiirmation of limitation ; in other words, the infinite 
and absolute, properly so called, are thus equally inconceiv- 
able to us. 



THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 75 

" As the conditionally limited (which we may briefly call 
the conditioned) is thus the only possible object of knowledge 
and of positive thought — thought necessarily supposes condi- 
tions. To think is to condition; and conditional limitation is 
the fundamental law of the possibility of thought. For, as 
the greyhound cannot outstrip his shadow, nor (by a more 
appropriate simile) the eagle outsoar the atmosphere in which 
he floats, and by which alone he may be supported ; so the 
mind cannot transcend that sphere of limitation, within and 
through which exclusively the possibility of thought is 
realized. Thought is only of the conditioned ; because, as we 
have said, to think is simply to condition. The absolute is 
conceived merely by a negation of conceivability ; and all 
that we know, is only known as 

' won from the void and formless infinite.' 

How, indeed, it could ever be doubted that thought is only of 
the conditioned, may well be deemed a matter of theprofoundest 
admiration. Thought cannot transcend consciousness ; con- 
sciousness is only possible under the antithesis of a subject 
and object of thought, known only in correlation, and mutually 
limiting each other ; while, independently of this, all that we 
know either of subject or object, either of mind or matter, is 
only a knowledge in each of the particular, of the plural, of 
the different, of the modified, of the phenomenal. We admit 
that the consequence of this doctrine is, — that philosophy, if 
viewed as more than a science of the conditioned, is impossi- 
ble. Departing from the particular, we admit, that we can 
never, in our highest generalizations, rise above the finite ; 
that our knowledge, whether of mind or matter, can be 
nothing more than a knowledge of the relative manifestations 
of an existence, which in itself it is our highest wisdom to 
recognize as beyond the reach of philosophy, — in the language 
of St Austin, — ' cognoscendo ignorari, et ignorando cognosci.' 
" The conditioned is the mean between two extremes, — two 



76 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 

inconditionates, exclusive of each other, neither of which can 
be conceived as possible, but of which, on the principles of con- 
tradiction and excluded middle, one must be admitted as 
necessary. On this opinion, therefore, reason is shown to 
be weak, but not deceitful. The mind is not represented as 
conceiving two propositions subversive of each other, as 
equally possible ; but only, as unable to understand as possi- 
ble, either of two extremes ; one of which, however, on 
the ground of their mutual repugnance, it is compelled 
to recognize as true. We are thus taught the salutary 
lesson, that the capacity of thought is not to be constituted 
into the measure of existence ; and are warned from recogniz- 
ing the domain of our knowledge as necessarily co- extensive 
with the horizon of our faith. And by a wonderful revelation, 
we are thus, in the very consciousness of our inability to 
conceive aught above the relative and finite, inspired with a 
belief in the existence of something unconditioned beyond the 
sphere of all comprehensible reality. " 

Clear and conclusive as this statement of the case appears 
when carefully studied, it is expressed in so abstract a 
manner as to be not very intelligible to the general reader. 
A more popular presentation of it, with illustrative applica- 
tions, as given by Mr Mansel in his "Limits of Religious 
Thought," will make it more fully understood. The follow- 
ing extracts, which I take the liberty of making from his 
pages, will suffice. 

" The very conception of consciousness, in whatever mode 
it may be manifested, necessarily implies distinction between 
one object and another. To be conscious, we must be conscious 
of something ; and that something can only be known, as 
that which it is, by being distinguished from that which it is 
not. But distinction is necessarily limitation ; for, if one 
object is to be distinguished from another, it must possess 
some form of existence which the other has not, or it must 
not possess some form which the other has. But it is obvious 



THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 77 

the Infinite cannot be distinguished, as such, from the Finite, 
by the absence of any quality which the Finite possesses ; for 
such absence would be a limitation. Nor yet can it be dis- 
tinguished by the presence of an attribute which the Finite 
has not ; for, as no finite part can be a constituent of an 
infinite whole, this differential characteristic must itself be 
infinite ; and must at the same time have nothing in common 
with the finite. We are thus thrown back npon our former 
impossibility ; for this second infinite will be distinguished 
from the finite by the absence of qualities which the latter 
possesses. A consciousness of the Infinite as such thus neces- 
sarily involves a self-contradiction ; for it implies the recogni- 
tion, by limitation and difference, of -that which can only be 
given as unlimited, and indifferent. * * * 

" This contradiction, which is utterly inexplicable on the 
supposition that the infinite is a positive object of human 
thought, is at once accounted for, when it is regarded as the 
mere negation of thought. If all thought is limitation ; — if 
whatever we conceive is, by the very act of conception, 
regarded as finite, — the infinite, from a human point of view, 
is merely a name for the absence of those conditions under 
which thought is possible. To speak of a Conception of the 
Infinite is, therefore, at once to affirm those conditions and to 
deny them. The contradiction, which we discover in such a 
conception, is only that which we have ourselves placed there, 
by tacitly assuming the conceivability of the inconceivable. 
The condition of consciousness is distinction ; and condition 
of distinction is limitation. We can have no consciousness of 
Being in general which is not some Being in particular : a 
thing, in consciousness, is one thing out of many. In assum- 
ing the possibility of an infinite object of consciousness, I 
assume, therefore, that it is at the same time limited and 
unlimited ; — actually something, without which it could not 
be an object of consciousness, and actually nothing, without 
which it could not be infinite. * * * 

" A second characteristic of Consciousness is, that it is only 



78 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 

possible in the form of a relation. There must be a Subject, 
or person conscious, and an Object, or thing of which he is 
conscious. There can be no consciousness without the 
union of these two factors ; and, in that union, each exists 
only as it is related to the other. The subject is a subject, 
only in so far as it is conscious of an object : the object is an 
object, only in so far as it is apprehended by a subject : and 
the destruction of either is the destruction of consciousness 
itself. It is thus manifest that a consciousness of the Abso- 
lute is equally self- contradictory with that of the Infinite. 
To be conscious of the Absolute as such, we must know that 
an object, which is given in relation to our consciousness, is 
identical with one which exists in its own nature, out of all 
relation to consciousness. But to know this identity, we 
must be able to compare the two together ; and such a com- 
parison is itself a contradiction. We are in fact required to 
compare that of which we are conscious with that of which 
we are not conscious ; the comparison itself being an act of 
consciousness, and only possible through the consciousness of 
both its objects. It is thus manifest that, even if we could 
be conscious of the absolute, we could not possibly know that 
it is the absolute : and, as we can be conscious of an object as 
such, only by knowing it to be what it is, this is equivalent 
to an admission that we cannot be conscious of the absolute 
at all. As an object of consciousness, every thing is neces- 
sarily relative ; and what a thing may be out of consciousness, 
no mode of consciousness can tell us. 

" This contradiction, again, admits of the same explanation 
as the former. Our whole notion of existence is necessarily 
relative ; for it is existence as conceived by us. But Existence, 
as we conceive it, is but a name for the several ways in which 
objects are presented to our consciousness, — a general term, 
embracing a variety of relations. The Absolute, on the other 
hand, is a term expressing no object of thought, but only a 
denial of the relation by which thought is constituted. To 
assume absolute existence as an object of thought, is thus to 



THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 79 

suppose a relation existing when the related terms exist no 
longer. An object of thought exists, as such, in and through 
its relation to a thinker ; while the Absolute, as such, is inde- 
pendent of all relation. The Conception of the Absolute thus' 
implies at the same time the presence and absence of the re- 
lation by which thought is constituted ; and our various en- 
deavours to represent it are only so many modified forms of 
the contradiction involved in our original assumption. Here, 
too, the contradiction is one which we ourselves have made. 
It does not imply that the Absolute cannot exist ; but it im- 
plies, most certainly, that we cannot conceive it as existing." 
Here let me point out how the same general inference may 
be evolved from another fundamental condition of thought, 
omitted by Sir W. Hamilton, and not supplied by Mr Man- 
sel ; — a condition which, under its obverse aspect, we have al- 
ready contemplated in the last section. Every complete act 
of consciousness, besides distinction and relation, also implies 
likeness. Before it can become an idea, or constitute a piece 
of knowledge, a mental state must not only be known as 
separate in kind from certain foregoing states to which it is 
known as related by succession ; but it must further be known 
as of the same kind with certain other foregoing states. 
That organization of changes which constitutes thinking-, in- 
volves continuous integration as well as continuous differenti- 
ation. Were each new affection of the mind perceived 
simply as an affection in some way contrasted with the 
preceding ones — were there but a chain of impressions, each 
of which as it arose was merely distinguished from its prede- 
cessors ; consciousness would be an utter chaos. To produce 
that orderly consciousness which we call intelligence, there 
requires the assimilation of each impression to others, 
that occurred earlier in the series. Both the successive 
mental states, and the successive relations which they bear to 
each other, must be classified ; and classification involves not 
only a parting of the unlike, but also a binding together of 
the like. In brief, a true cognition is possible only through 



80 THE RELATIVITY OE ALL KNOWLEDGE. 

an accompanying recognition. Should it be objected 

that if so, there cannot be a first cognition, and hence there 
can be no cognition ; the reply is, that cognition proper arises 
' gradually — that during the first stage of incipient intelligence, 
before the feelings produced by intercourse with the outer world 
have been put into order, there are no cognitions, strictly so 
called; and that, as every infant shows us, these slowly 
emerge out of the confusion of unfolding consciousness as 
fast as the experiences are arranged into groups — as fast as 
the most frequently repeated sensations, and their relations to 
each other, become familiar enough to admit of their recog- 
nition as such or such, whenever they recur. Should it be 
further objected that if cognition pre-supposes recognition, 
there can be no cognition, even by an adult, of an object 
never before seen ; there is still the sufficient answer that in 
so far as it is not assimilated to previously-seen objects, it is 
not known, and that it is known in so far as it is assimilated 
to them. Of this paradox the interpretation is, that an object 
is classifiable in various ways, with various degrees of com- 
pleteness. An animal hitherto unknown (mark the word), 
though not referable to any established species or genus, is 
yet recognized as belonging to one of the larger divisions 
— mammals, birds, reptiles, or fishes ; or should it be so 
anomalous that its alliance with any of these is not determin- 
able, it may yet be classed as vertebrate or invertebrate ; or if 
it be one of those organisms of which it is doubtful whether 
the animal or vegetal characteristics predominate, it is still 
known as a Living body ; even should it be questioned 
whether it is organic, it remains beyond question that it is a 
material object, and it is cognized by being recognized as 
such. Whence it is manifest that a thing is perfectly known 
only when it is in all respects like certain things previously 
observed ; that in proportion to the number of respects in 
which it is unlike them, is the extent to which it is unknown ; 
and that hence when it has absolutely no attribute in common 



THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 81 

with anything else, it must be absolutely beyond the bounds 
of knowledge. 

Observe the corollary which here concerns us. A cogni- 
tion of the Real, as distinguished from the Phenomenal, must, 
if it exists, conform to this law of cognition in general. The 
First Cause, The Infinite, the Absolute, to be known at all, 
must be classed. To be positively thought of, it must be 
thought of as such or such — as of this or that kind. Can it 
be like in kind to anything of which we have sensible 
experience ? Obviously not. Between the creating and the 
created, there must be a distinction transcending any of the 
distinctions existing between different divisions of the created. 
That which is uncaused cannot be assimilated to that which 
is caused : the two being, in the very naming, antithetically 
opposed. The Infinite cannot be grouped along with some- 
thing that is finite ; since, in being so grouped, it must be 
regarded as not-infinite. It is impossible to put the Abso- 
lute in the same category with anything relative, so long as 
the Absolute is defined as that of which no necessary relation 
can be predicated. Is it then that the Actual, though un- 
thinkable by classification with the Apparent, is thinkable by 
classification with itself ? This supposition is equally absurd 
with the other. It implies the plurality of the First Cause, 
the Infinite, the Absolute ; and this implication is self- contra- 
dictory. There cannot be more than one First Cause ; seeing 
that the existence of more than one would involve the existence 
of something necessitating more than one, which something 
would be the true First Cause., How self- destructive is the 
assumption of two or more Infinites, is manifest on remember- 
ing that such Infinites, by limiting each other, would become 
finite. And similarly, an Absolute which existed not alone 
but along with other Absolutes, would no longer be an abso- 
lute but a relative. The Unconditioned therefore, as classable 
neither with any form of the conditioned nor with any other 
Unconditioned, cannot be classed at all. And to admit that 
it cannot be known as of such or such kind, is to admit that 
it is unknowable. 
5* 



&2 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 

Thus, from the very nature of thought, the relativity of our 
knowledge is inferable in three several ways. As we find by 
analyzing it, and as we see it objectively displayed in every 
proposition, a thought involves relation, difference, likeness. 
Whatever does not present each of these does not admit of 
cognition. And hence we may say that the Unconditioned, as 
presenting none of them, is trebly unthinkable. 

§ 25. From yet another point of view we may discern the 
same great truth. If, instead of examining our intellectual 
powers directly as exhibited in the act of thought, or indirectly 
as exhibited in thought when expressed by words, we look at 
the connexion between the mind and the world, a like conclu- 
sion is forced upon us. In the very definition of Life, when 
reduced to its most abstract shape, this ultimate implication 
becomes visible. 

All vital actions, considered not separately but in their 
ensemble, have for their final purpose the balancing of certain 
outer processes by certain inner processes. There are unceasing 
external forces tending to bring the matter of which organic 
bodies consist, into that state of stable equilibrium displayed 
by inorganic bodies; there are internal forces by which 
this tendency is constantly antagonized; and the perpetual 
changes which constitute Life, may be regarded as incidental 
to the maintenance of the antagonism. To preserve the 
erect posture, for instance, we see that certain weights have 
to be neutralized by certain strains : each limb or other organ, 
gravitating to the Earth and ^pulling down the parts to which 
it is attached, has to be preserved in position by the tension 
of sundry muscles ; or in other words, the group of forces 
which would if allowed bring the body to the ground, has to 
be counterbalanced by another group of forces. Again, to 
keep up the temperature at a particular point, the external 
process of radiation and absorption of heat by the surround- 
ing medium, must be met by a corresponding internal process 
of chemical combination, whereby more heat may be evolved ; 
to which add, that if from atmospheric changes the loss 



THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 83 

becomes greater or less, the production must become greater or 
less. And similarly throughout the organic actions in general. 
"When we contemplate the lower kinds of life, we see that 
the correspondences thus maintained are direct and simple ; 
as in a plant, the vitality of which mainly consists in osmotic 
and chemical actions responding to the co- existence of light, 
heat, water, and carbonic acid around it. But in animals, and 
especially in the higher orders of them, the correspondences 
become extremely complex. Materials for growth and 
repair not being, like those which plants require, everywhere 
present, but being widely dispersed and under special forms, 
have to be found, to be secured, and to be reduced to a fit state 
for assimilation. Hence the need for locomotion ; hence the need 
for the senses ; hence the need for prehensile and destructive 
appliances ; hence the need for an elaborate digestive appa- 
ratus. Observe, however, that these successive complications 
are essentially nothing but aids to the maintenance of the 
organic balance in its integrity, in opposition to those physical, 
chemical, and other agencies which tend to overturn it. And 
observe, moreover, that while these successive complications 
subserve this fundamental adaptation of inner to outer actions, 
they are themselves nothing else but further adaptations of 
inner to outer actions. For what are those movements by 
which a predatory creature pursues its prey, or by which its 
prey seeks to escape, but certain changes in the organism 
fitted to meet certain changes in its environment ? What is 
that compound operation which constitutes the perception of 
a piece of food, but a particular correlation of nervous modifi- 
cations, answering to a particular correlation of physical pro- 
perties ? "What is that process by which food when swallowed 
is reduced to a fit form for assimilation, but a set of mechanical 
and chemical actions responding to the mechanical and 
chemical actions which distinguish the food? Whence 
it becomes manifest, that while Life in its simplest form is the 
correspondence of certain inner physico-chemical actions with 
certain outer physico-chemical actions, each advance to a higher 



84 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE, 

form of Life corlsists in a better preservation of this primary 
correspondence by the establishment of other correspondences. 
Divesting this conception of all superfluities and reducing 
it to its most abstract shape, we see that Life is definable as 
the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external 
relations. And when we so define it, we discover that the 
physical and the psychial life are equally comprehended by 
the definition. "We perceive that this which we call Intelli- 
gence, shows itself when the external relations to which the 
internal ones are adjusted, begin to be numerous, complex, and 
remote in time or space ; that every advance in Intelligence 
essentially consists in the establishment of more varied, more 
complete, and more involved adjustments ; and that even the 
highest achievements of science are resolvable into mental rela- 
tions of co- existence and seqiience, so co-ordinated as exactly to 
tally with certain relations of co-existence and sequence that 
occur externally. A caterpillar, wandering at random and at 
length finding its way on to a plant having a certain odour, 
begins to eat — has inside of it an organic relation between 
a particular impression and a particular set of actions, answer- 
ing to the relation outside of it, between scent and nutriment. 
The sparrow, guided by the more complex correlation of impres- 
sions which the colour, form, and movements of the caterpillar 
gave it ; and guided also by other correlations which measure 
the position and distance of the caterpillar ; adjusts certain 
correlated muscular movements in such way as to seize the 
caterpillar. Through a much greater distance in space is the 
hawk, hovering above, affected by the relations of shape and 
motion which the sparrow presents ; and the much more com- 
plicated and prolonged series of related nervous and muscular 
changes, gone through in correspondence with the sparrow's 
changing relations of position, finally succeed when they are 
precisely adjusted to these changing relations. In the fowler, 
experience has established a relation between the appearance 
and flight of a hawk and the destruction of other birds, includ- 
ing game ; there is also in him an established relation between 



THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 85 

those visual impressions answering to a certain distance in 
space, and the range of his gun ; and he has learned, too, 
by frequent observation, what relations of position the 
sights must bear to a point somewhat in advance of the fly- 
ing bird, before he can fire with success. Similarly if we 
go back to the manufacture of the gun. By relations of co- 
existence between colour, density, and place in the earth, a 
particular mineral is known as one which yields iron ; and 
the obtainment of iron from it, results when certain correlated 
acts of ours, are adjusted to certain correlated affinities dis- 
played by ironstone, coal, and lime, at a high temperature. If 
we descend yet a step further, and ask a chemist to explain the 
explosion of gunpowder, or apply to a mathematician for a 
theory of projectiles, we still find that special or general rela- 
tions of co-existence and sequence between properties, mo- 
tions, spaces &c, are all they can teach us. And lastly, let it be 
noted that what we call truth, guiding us to successful action 
and the consequent maintenance of life, is simply the accurate 
correspondence of subjective to objective relations ; while error, 
leading to failure and therefore towards death, is the absence 
of such accurate correspondence. 

If, then, Life in all its manifestations, inclusive of Intelli- 
gence in its highest forms, consists in the continuous adjust- 
ment of internal relations to external relations, the necessarily 
relative character of our knowledge becomes obvious. The 
simplest cognition being the establishment of some connexion 
between subjective states, answering to some connexion be- 
tween objective agencies ; and each successively more complex 
cognition being the establishment of some more involved con- 
nexion of such states, answering to some more involved con- 
nexion of such agencies ; it is clear that the process, no matter 
how far it be carried, can never bring within the reach of Intel- 
ligence, either the states themselves or the agencies themselves. 
Ascertaining which things occur along with which, and what 
things follow what, supposing it to be pursued exhaustively, 
must still leave us with co-existences and sequences only. If 



86 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 

every act of knowing is the formation of a relation in consci- 
ousness parallel to a relation in the environment, then the re- 
lativity of knowledge is self-evident — becomes indeed a truism. 
Thinking being relationing, no thought can ever express more 
than relations. 

And here let us not omit to mark how that to which our 
intelligence is confined, is that with which alone our intelli- 
gence is concerned. The knowledge within our reach, is the 
only knowledge that can be of service to us. This mainten- 
ance of a correspondence between internal actions and exter- 
nal actions, which both constitutes our life at each moment 
and is the means whereby life is continued through subsequent 
moments, merely requires that the agencies acting upon us 
shall be known in their co-existences and sequences, and not 
that they shall be known in themselves. If x and y are two 
uniformly connected properties in some outer object, while a 
and b are the effects they produce in our consciousness ; and 
if while the property x produces in us the indifferent mental 
state a, the property y produces in us the painful mental state 
b (answering to a physical injury) ; then, all that is requisite 
for our guidance, is, that x being the uniform accompaniment 
of y externally, a shall be the uniform accompaniment of b in- 
ternally ; so that when, by the presence of x, a is produced in 
consciousness, b, or rather the idea of b, shall follow it, and 
excite the motions by which the effect of y may be escaped. 
The sole need is that a and b and the relation between them, 
shall always answer to x and y and the relation between them. 
It matters nothing to us if a and b are like x and y or not. 
Could they be exactly identical with them, we should not be 
one whit the better off; and their total dissimilarity is no 
disadvantage to us. 

Deep down then in the very nature of Life, the relativity 
of , our knowledge is discernible. The analysis of vital actions 
in general, leads not only to the conclusion that things in them- 
selves cannot be known to us ; but also to the conclusion that 
knowledge of them, were it possible, would be useless. 



THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 87 

S 

§ 26. There still remains the final question — What must 
we say- concerning that which transcends knowledge ? Are 
we to rest wholly in the consciousness of phenomena ? — is the 
result of inquiry to exclude utterly from our minds everything 
but the relative ? or must we also believe in something beyond 
the relative ? 

The answer of pure logic is held to be, that by the limits 
of our intelligence we are rigorously confined within the re- 
lative ; and that anything transcending the relative can be 
thought of only as a pure negation, or as a non-existence. 
" The absolute is conceived merely by a negation of conceiva- 
bility," writes Sir William Hamilton. "The Absolute and 
the Infinite" says Mr Mansel, " are thus, like the Inconceiv- 
able and the Imperceptible, names indicating, not an object of 
thought or of consciousness at all, but the mere absence of the 
conditions under which consciousness is possible." From each 
of which extracts may be deduced the conclusion, that since 
reason cannot warrant us in affirming the positive existence 
of what is cognizable only as a negation, we cannot rationally 
aflirm the positive existence of anything beyond phenomena. 

Unavoidable as this conclusion seems, it involves, I think, 
a grave error. If the premiss be granted, the inference must 
doubtless be admitted ; but the premiss, in the form presented 
by Sir William Hamilton and Mr Mansel, is not strictly true. 
Though, in the foregoing pages, the arguments used by these 
writers to show that the Absolute is unknowable, have been 
approvingly quoted ; and though these arguments have been 
enforced by others equally thoroughgoing ; yet there remains 
to be stated a qualification, which saves us from that scepti- 
cism otherwise necessitated. It is not to be denied that so 
long as we confine ourselves to the purely logical aspect of the 
question, the propositions quoted above must be accepted in 
their entirety ; but when we contemplate its more general, or 
• psychological, aspect, we find that these propositions are im- 
perfect statements of the truth : omitting, or rather excluding, 
as they do, an all-important fact. To speak specifically : — 



1/ 



OO THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 

Besides that definite consciousness of which Logic formulates 
the laws, there is also an indefinite consciousness which cannot 
be formulated. Besides complete thoughts, and besides the 
thoughts which though incomplete admit of completion, there 
are thoughts which it is impossible to complete ; and yet which 
are still real, in the sense that they are normal affections of 
the intellect. 

Observe in the first place, that every one of the arguments 
by which the relativity of our knowledge is demonstrated, 
distinctly postulates the positive existence of something be- 
yond the relative. To say that we cannot know the Absolute, 
is, by implication, to affirm that there is an Absolute. In the 
very denial of our power to learn what the Absolute is, there 
lies hidden the assumption that it is ; and the making of 
this assumption proves that the Absolute has been present 
to the mind, not as a nothing, but as a something. Similarly 
with every step in the reasoning by which this doctrine is 
upheld. The jNoumenon, everywhere named as the antithesis 
of the Phenomenon, is throughout necessarily thought of as 
an actuality. It is rigorously impossible to conceive that our 
knowledge is a knowledge of Appearances only, without at the 
same time conceiving a Reality of which they are appearances ; 
for appearance without reality is unthinkable. Strike out 
from the argument the terms Unconditioned, Infinite, Absolute, 
with their equivalents, and in place of them write, " negation 
of conceivability," or " absence of the conditions under which 
consciousness is possible," and you find that the argument 
becomes nonsense. Truly to realize in thought any one of the 
propositions of which the argument consists, the Unconditioned 
must be represented as positive and not negative. How then can 
it be a legitimate conclusion from the argument, that our con- 
sciousness of it is negative ? An argument, the very construc- 
tion of which assigns to a certain term a- .certain meaning, 
but which ends in showing that this term has no such mean- 
ing, is simply an elaborate suicide. Clearly, thSn, the very 
demonstration that a definite consciousness of the Absolute 






THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 89 

is impossible to us, unavoidably presupposes an indefinite con- 
sciousness of it. 

Perhaps the best way of showing that by the necessary 
conditions of thought, we are obliged to form a positive though 
vague consciousness of this which transcends distinct con- 
sciousness, is to analyze our conception of the antithesis 
between Relative and Absolute. It is a doctrine called in 
question by none, that such antinomies of thought as Whole 
and Part, Equal and Unequal, Singular and Plural, are 
necessarily conceived as correlatives : the conception of a part 
is impossible without the conception of a whole ; there can 
be no idea of equality without one of inequality. And it is 
admitted that in the same manner, the Relative is itself con- 
ceivable as such, only by opposition to the Irrelative or Abso- 
lute. Sir William Hamilton however, in his trenchant 
(and in most parts unanswerable) criticism on Cousin, contends, 
in conformity with his position above stated, that one of 
these correlatives is nothing whatever beyond the negation of 
the other. " Correlatives " he says " certainly suggest each 
other, but correlatives may, or may not, be equally real and 
positive. In thought contradictories necessarily imply each 
other, for the knowledge of contradictories is one. But the 
reality of one contradictory, so far from guaranteeing the reality 
of the other, is nothing else than its negation. Thus every 
positive notion (the concept of a thing by what it is) suggests 
a negative notion (the concept of a thing by what it is not) ; 
and the highest positive notion, the notion of the conceivable, 
is not without its corresponding negative in the notion of the 
inconceivable. But though these mutually suggest each 
other, the positive alone is real ; the negative is only an ab- 
straction of the other, and in the highest generality, even an 
abstraction of thought itself." Now the assertion 
that of such contradictories " the negative is only an abstrac- 
tion of the other" — "is nothing else than its negation," — is 
not true. In such correlatives as Equal and Unequal, it is 
obvious enough that the negative concept contains something 



90 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 

besides the negation of the positive one; for the things of 
which equality is denied are not abolished from consciousness 
by the denial. And the fact overlooked by Sir William 
Hamilton, is, that the like holds even with those correlatives 
of which the negative is inconceivable, in the strict sense of 
the word. Take for example the Limited and the Unlimited. 
Our notion of the Limited is composed, firstly of a conscious- 
ness of some kind of being, and secondly of a consciousness of 
the limits under which it is known. In the antithetical notion 
of the Unlimited, the consciousness of limits is abolished ; but 
not the consciousness of some kind of being. It is quite true 
that in the absence of conceived limits, this consciousness ceases 
to be a concept properly so called ; but it is none the less true 
that it remains as a mode of consciousness. If, in such cases, 
the negative contradictory were, as alleged, " nothing else " 
than the negation of the other, and therefore a mere nonen- 
tity, then it would clearly follow that negative contradictories 
could be used interchangeably: the Unlimited might be 
thought of as antithetical to the Divisible ; and the Indivisible 
as antithetical to the Limited. While the fact that they 
cannot be so used, proves that in consciousness the Unlimited 
and the Indivisible are qualitatively distinct, and therefore 
positive or real; since distinction cannot exist between 
nothings. The error, (very naturally fallen into by philo- 
sophers intent on demonstrating the limits and conditions 
of consciousness,) consists in assuming that consciousness con- 
tains nothing but limits and conditions ; to the entire neglect 
of that which is limited and conditioned. It is forgotten 
that there is something which alike forms the raw material 
of definite thought and remains after the definiteness which 
thinking gave to it has been destroyed. ISfow all 

this applies by change of terms to the last and highest of 
these antinomies — that between the Eelative and the Non- 
relative. We are conscious of the Relative as existence under 
conditions and limits ; it is impossible that these conditions 
and limits can be thought of apart from something to which 



THE RELATIVITY OP ALL KNOWLEDGE. 91 

they give the form ; the abstraction of these conditions and 
limits, is, by the hypothesis, the abstraction of them only ; con- 
sequently there must be a residuary consciousness of some- 
thing which filled up their outlines ; and this indefinite some- 
thing constitutes our consciousness of the Non-relative or 
Absolute. Impossible though it is to give to this conscious- 
ness any qualitative or quantitative expression whatever, it is 
not the less certain that it remains with us as a positive and 
indestructible element of thought. 

Still more manifest will this truth become when it is ob- 
served that our conception of the Relative itself disappears, if 
our conception of the Absolute is a pure negation. It is ad- 
mitted, or rather it is contended, by the writers I have quoted 
above, that contradictories can be known only in relation to 
each other — that Equality, for instance, is unthinkable apart 
from its correlative Inequality ; and that thus the Relative can 
itself be conceived only by opposition to the Non-relative. It 
is also admitted, or rather contended, that the consciousness of 
a relation implies a consciousness of both the related members. 
If we are required to conceive the relation between the Re- 
lative and Non-relative without being conscious of both, " we 
are in fact " (to quote the words of Mr Mansel differently 
applied) " required to compare that of which we are conscious 
with that of which we are not conscious ; the comparison 
itself being an act of consciousness, and only possible through 
the consciousness of both its objects." What then becomes 
of the assertion that " the Absolute is conceived merely by a 
negation of. conceivability," or as " the mere absence of the 
conditions under which consciousness is possible ? " If the Non- 
relative or Absolute, is present in thought only as a mere 
negation, then the relation between it and the Relative be- 
comes unthinkable, because one of the terms of the relation is 
absent from consciousness. And if this relation is unthink- 
able, then is the Relative itself unthinkable, for want of its 
antithesis : whence results the disappearance of all thought 
whatever. 



92 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 

Let me here point out that both Sir Wm Hamilton and 
Mr Mansel, do, in other places, distinctly imply that our 
consciousness of the Absolute, indefinite though it is, is 
positive and not negative. The very passage already quoted 
from Sir Wm Hamilton, in which he asserts that "the 
absolute is conceived merely by a negation of conceivability," 
itself ends with the remark that, " by a wonderful revelation, 
we are thus, in the very consciousness of our inability to con- 
ceive aught above the relative and finite, inspired with a 
belief in the existence of something unconditioned, beyond 
the sphere of all comprehensible reality." The last of 
these assertions practically admits that which the" other 
denies. By the laws of thought as Sir "Wm Hamilton has 
interpreted them, he finds himself forced to the conclusion 
that our consciousness of the Absolute is a pure negation. 
He nevertheless finds that there does exist in consciousness 
an irresistible conviction of the real " existence of some- 
thing unconditioned." And he. gets over the inconsistency 
by speaking of this conviction as " a wonderful revelation " — 
" a belief " with which we are " inspired : " thus apparently 
hinting that it is supernaturally at variance with the laws of 
thought. Mr Mansel is betrayed into a like inconsistency. 
When he says that " we are compelled, by the constitution of 
our minds, to believe in the existence of an Absolute and In- 
finite Being, — a belief which appears forced upon us, as the 
complement of our consciousness of the relative and the 
finite ; " he clearly says by implication that this conscious- 
ness is positive, and not negative. He tacitly admits that 
we are obliged to regard the Absolute as something more 
than a negation — that our consciousness of it is not "the 
mere absence of the conditions under which consciousness is 
possible." 

The supreme importance of this question must be my 
apology for taxing the reader's attention a little further, in 
the hope of clearing up the remaining difficulties. The ne- 
cessarily positive character of our consciousness of the Uncon- 



THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 93 

ditioned, which, as we have seen, follows from an ultimate 
law of thought, will be better understood on contemplating 
the process of thought. 

One of the arguments used to prove the relativity of 
our knowledge, is, that we cannot conceive Space or Time as 
either limited or unlimited. It is pointed out that when we 
imagine a limit, there simultaneously arises the consciousness 
of a space or time existing beyond the limit. This remoter 
space or time, though not contemplated as definite, is yet con- 
templated as real. Though we do not form of it a conception 
proper, since we do not bring it within bounds, there is yet in 
our minds the unshaped material of a conception. Similarly 
with our consciousness of Cause. We are no more able to 
form a circumscribed idea of Cause, than of Space or Time ; 
and we are consequently obliged to think of the Cause which 
transcends the limits of our thought as positive though inde- 
finite. Just in the same manner that on conceiving any 
bounded space, there arises a nascent consciousness of space 
outside the bounds ; so, when we think of any definite cause, 
there arises a nascent consciousness of a cause behind it : and 
in the one case as in the other, this nascent consciousness is 
in substance like that which suggests it, though without form. 
The momentum of thought inevitably carries us beyond con- 
ditioned existence to unconditioned existence ; and this ever 
persists in us as the body of a thought to which we can give 
no shape. 

Hence our firm belief in objective reality — a belief which 
metaphysical criticisms cannot for a moment shake. When 
we are taught that a piece of matter, regarded by us as exist- 
ing externally, cannot be really known, but that we can 
know only certain impressions produced on us, we are yet, by 
the relativity of our thought, compelled to think of these in 
relation to a positive cause — the notion of a real existence 
which generated these impressions becomes nascent. If it be 
proved to us that every notion of a real existence which we 
can frame, is utterly inconsistent with itself — that matter, 



, 



94 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 

however conceived by us, cannot be matter as it actually is, 
our conception, though transfigured, is not destroyed : there 
remains the sense of reality, dissociated as far as possible from 
those special forms under which it was before represented in 
thought. Though Philosophy condemns successively each 
attempted conception of the Absolute — though it proves to us 
that the Absolute is not this, nor that, nor that — though in 
obedience to it we negative, one after another, each idea as it 
arises ; yet, as we cannot expel the entire contents of consci- 
ousness, there ever remains behind an element which passes 
into new shapes. The continual negation of each particu- 
lar form and limit, simply results in the more or less com- 
plete abstraction of all forms and limits ; and so ends in an 
indefinite consciousness of the unformed and unlimited. 

And here we come face to face with the ultimate diffi- 
culty — How can there possibly be constituted a consciousness 
of the unformed and unlimited, when, by its very nature, con- 
sciousness is possible only under forms and limits ?. If every 
consciousness of existence is a consciousness of existence as 
conditioned, then how, after the negation of conditions, can 
there be any residuum ?. Though not directly withdrawn by 
the withdrawal of its conditions, must not the raw material of 
consciousness be withdrawn by implication ?. Must it not van- 
ish when the conditions of its existence vanish ? That 
there must be a solution of this difficulty is manifest ; since 
even those who would put it, do, as already shown, admit 
that we have some such consciousness ; and the solution ap- 
pears to be that above shadowed forth. Such consciousness 
is not, and cannot be, constituted by any single mental act ; 
but is the product of many mental acts. In each concept there 
is an element which persists. It is alike impossible for this 
element to be absent from consciousness, and for it to be pre- 
sent in consciousness alone : either alternative involves un- 
consciousness — the one from the want of the substance ; the 
other from the want of the form. But the persistence of this 
element under successive conditions, necessitates a sense of it as 



THE KELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 95 

distinguished from the conditions, and independent of them. 
The sense of a something that is conditioned in every thought, 
cannot be got rid of, because the something cannot be got rid of. 
How then must the sense of this something be constituted ? 
Evidently by combining successive concepts deprived of their 
limits and conditions. We form this indefinite thought, as 
we form many of our definite thoughts, by the coalescence of 
a series of thoughts. Let me illustrate this. A large 

complex object, having attributes too numerous to be repre- 
sented at once, is yet tolerably well conceived by the union of 
several representations, each standing for part of its attributes. 
On thinking of a piano, there first rises in imagination its 
visual appearance, to which are instantly added (though by 
separate mental acts) the ideas of its remote side and of its 
solid substance. A complete conception, however, involves the 
strings, the hammers, the dampers, the pedals; and while 
successively adding these to the conception, the attributes first 
thought of lapse more or less completely out of consciousness. 
Nevertheless, the whole group constitutes a representation of 
the piano. Now as in this case we form a definite concept of 
a special existence, by imposing limits and conditions in suc- 
cessive acts; so, in the converse case, by taking away the 
limits and conditions in successive acts, we form an indefinite 
notion of general existence. By fusing a series of states of 
consciousness, in each of which, as it arises, the limitations 
and conditions are abolished, there is produced a consciousness 
of something unconditioned. To speak more rigor- 

ously : — this consciousness is not the abstract of any one 
group of thoughts, ideas, or conceptions ; but it is the abstract 
of all thoughts, ideas, or conceptions. That which is common 
to them all, and cannot be got rid of, is what we predicate by 
the word existence. Dissociated as this becomes from each of 
its modes by the perpetual change of those modes, it remains 
as an indefinite consciousness of something constant under 
all modes — of being apart from its appearances. The dis- 
tinction we feel between special and general existence, is the 



V 



96 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 

distinction between that which is changeable in us, and that 
which is unchangeable. The contrast between the Absolute 
and the Relative in our minds, is really the contrast between 
that mental element which exists absolutely, and those which 
exist relatively. 

By its very nature, therefore, this ultimate mental element 
is at once necessarily indefinite and necessarily indestructible. 
Our consciousness of the unconditioned being literally the un- 
conditioned consciousness, or raw material of thought to which 
in thinking we give definite forms, it follows that an ever-pre- 
sent sense of real existence is the very basis of our intelligence. 
As we can in successive mental acts get rid of all particular 
conditions and replace them by others, but cannot get rid of 
that undifferentiated substance of consciousness which is con- 
ditioned anew in every thought ; there ever remains with us 
a sense of that which exists persistently and independently of 
conditions. At the same time that by the laws of thought 
we are rigorously prevented from forming a conception of ab- 
solute existence ; we are by the laws of thought equally pre- 
vented from ridding ourselves of the consciousness of absolute 
existence : this consciousness being, as we here see, the obverse 
of our self-consciousness. And since the only possible mea- 
sure of relative validity among our beliefs, is the degree of 
their persistence in opposition to the efforts made to change 
them, it follows that this which persists at all times, under all 
circumstances, and cannot cease until consciousness ceases, has 
the highest validity of any. 

To sum up this somewhat too elaborate argument : — We 
have seen how in the very assertion that all our knowledge, 
properly so called, is Relative, there is involved the assertion 
that there exists a Non-relative. We have seen how, in each 
step of the argument by which this doctrine is established, 
the same assumption is made. We have seen how, from the 
very necessity of thinking in relations, it follows that the 
Relative is itself inconceivable, except as related to a real 
v Non-relative. We have seen that unless a real Non-relative 



THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 97 

or Absolute be postulated, the Relative itself becomes abso- 
lute ; and so brings the argument to a contradiction. And on 
contemplating the process of thought, we have equally seen 
how impossible it is to get rid of the consciousness of an 
actuality lying behind appearances ; and how, from this im- 
possibility, results our indestructible belief in that actuality. 






CHAPTER V. 



THE RECONCILIATION. 



§ 27. Thus do all lines of argument converge to the same 
conclusion. The inference reached a priori, in the last chapter, 
confirms the inferences which, in the two preceding chapters, 
were reached a posteriori. Those imbecilities of the under- 
standing that disclose themselves when we try to answer the 
highest questions of objective science, subjective science proves 
to be necessitated by the laws of that understanding. We not 
only learn by the frustration of all our efforts, that the reality 
underlying appearances is totally and for ever inconceivable 
by us ; but we also learn why, from the very nature of our 
intelligence, it must be so. Finally we discover that this 
conclusion, which, in its unqualified form, seems opposed to 
the instinctive convictions of mankind, falls into harmony 
with them when the missing qualification is supplied. 
Though the Absolute cannot in any manner or degree be 
known, in the strict sense of knowing, yet we find that its po- 
sitive existence is a necessary datum of consciousness ; that so 
long as consciousness continues, we cannot for an instant rid 
it of this datum ; and that thus the belief which this datum 
constitutes, has a higher warrant than any other whatever. 

Here then is that basis of agreement we set out to seek. 
This conclusion which objective science illustrates, and sub- 
jective science shows to be unavoidable, — this conclusion 
which, while it in the main expresses the doctrine of the Eng- 



THE RECONCILIATION. 99 

lish school of philosophy, recognizes also a soul of truth in the 
doctrine of the antagonist German school — this conclusion 
which brings the results of speculation into harmony with those 
of common sense ; is also the conclusion which reconciles Reli- 
gion with Science. Common Sense asserts the existence of a 
reality ; Objective Science proves that this reality cannot be 
what we think it ; Subjective Science shows why we cannot 
think of it as it is, and yet are compelled to think of it as ex- 
isting ; and in this assertion of a Reality utterly inscrutable 
in nature, Religion finds an assertion essentially coinciding 
with her own. We are obliged to regard every phenomenon 
as a manifestation of some Power by which we are acted upon; 
phenomena being, so far as we can ascertain, unlimited in 
their diffusion, we are obliged to regard this Power as omni- 
present ; and criticism teaches us that this Power is wholly 
incomprehensible. In this consciousness of an Incomprehen- 
sible Omnipresent Power, we have just that consciousness on 
which Religion dwells. And so we arrive at the point where 
Religion and Science coalesce. 

To understand fully how real is the reconciliation thus 
reached, it will be needful to look at the respective attitudes 
that Religion and Science have all along maintained towards 
this conclusion. We must observe how, all along, the imper- 
fections of each have been undergoing correction by the other; 
and how the final out-come of their mutual criticisms, can be 
nothing else than an entire agreement on this deepest and 
widest of all truths. 

§ 28. In Religion let us recognize the high merit that from 
the beginning it has dimly discerned the ultimate verity, and 
has never ceased to insist upon it. In its earliest and crudest 
forms it manifested, however vaguely and inconsistently, an 
intuition forming the germ of this highest belief in which all 
philosophies finally unite. The consciousness of a mystery 
is traceable in the rudest fetishism. Each higher religious 
creed, rejecting those definite and simple interpretations of 



100 THE RECONCILIATION. 

Nature previously given, has become more religious by doing 
this. As the quite concrete and conceivable agencies alleged 
as the causes of things, have been replaced by agencies less 
concrete and conceivable, the element of mystery has of ne- 
cessity become more predominant. Through all its successive 
phases the disappearance of those positive dogmas by which 
the mystery was made unmysterious, has formed the essential 
change delineated in religious history. And so Religion has 
ever been approximating towards that complete recognition of 
this mystery which is its goal. 

For its essentially valid belief, Religion has constantly done 
battle. Gross as were the disguises under which it first 
espoused this belief, and cherishing this belief, though it still 
does, under disfiguring vestments, it has never ceased to main- 
tain and defend it. It has everywhere established and pro- 
pagated one or other modification of the doctrine that all things 
are manifestations of a Power that transcends our knowledge. 
Though from age to age, Science has continually defeated it 
wherever they have come in collision, and has obliged it to 
relinquish one or more of its positions ; it has still held the 
remaining ones with undiminished tenacity. "No exposure of 
the logical inconsistency of its conclusions — no proof that each 
of its particular dogmas was absurd, has been able to weaken 
its allegiance to that ultimate verity for which it stands. 
After criticism has abolished all its arguments and reduced it 
to silence, there has still remained with it the indestructible 
consciousness of a truth which, however faulty the mode in 
which it had been expressed, was yet a truth beyond cavil. 
To this conviction its adherence has been substantially sincere. 
And for the guardianship and diffusion of it, Humanity has 
ever been, and must ever be, its debtor. 

But while from the beginning, Religion has had the all- 
essential office of preventing men from being wholly absorbed 
in the relative or immediate, and of awakening them to a con- 
sciousness of something beyond it, this office has been but very 
imperfectly discharged. Religion has ever been more or les3 



THE RECONCILIATION. 101 

irreligious; and it continues to be partially irreligious even 
now. In the first place, as implied above, it has all 

along professed to have some knowledge of that which tran- 
scends knowledge; and has so contradicted its own teachings. 
While with one breath it has asserted that the Cause of all 
things passes understanding, it has, with the next breath, 
asserted that the Cause of all things possesses such or such 
attributes — can be in so far understood. In the se- 

cond place, while in great part sincere in its fealty to the great 
truth it has had to uphold, it has often been insincere, and 
consequently irreligious, in maintaining the untenable doc- 
trines by which it has obscured this great truth. Each as- 
sertion respecting the nature, acts, or motives of that Power 
which the Universe manifests to us, has been repeatedly called 
in question, and proved to be inconsistent with itself, or with 
accompanying assertions. Yet each of them has been age 
after age insisted on, in spite of a secret consciousness that it 
would not bear examination. Just as though unaware that 
its central position was impregnable, Religion has obstinate- 
ly held every outpost long after it was obviously indefen- 
sible. And this naturally introduces us to the third and 
most serious form of irreligion which Religion has displayed ; 
namely, an imperfect belief in that which it especially professes 
to believe. How truly its central position is impregnable, Re- 
ligion has never adequately realized. In the devoutest faith 
as we habitually see it, there lies hidden an innermost core of 
scepticism ; and it is this scepticism which causes that dread 
of inquiry displayed by Religion when face to face with Science. 
Obliged to abandon one by one the superstitions it once ten- 
aciously held, and daily finding its cherished beliefs more and 
more shaken, Religion shows a secret fear that all things may 
some day be explained ; and thus itself betrays a lurking 
doubt whether that Incomprehensible Cause of which it is 
conscious, is really incomprehensible. 

Of Religion then, we must always remember, that amid its 
many errors and corruptions it has asserted and diffused a 



102 THE RECONCILIATION. 

supreme verity. From the first, the recognition of this supreme 
verity, in however imperfect a manner, has been its vital ele- 
ment ; and its various defects, once extreme hut gradually dimin- 
ishing, have been so many failures to recognize in full that which 
it recognized in part. The truly religious element of Eeligion 
has always been good ; that which has proved untenable in 
doctrine and vicious in practice, has been its irreligious ele- 
ment ; and from this it has been ever undergoing purification. 



/ 



§ 29. And now observe that all along, the agent which has 
effected the purification has been Science. We habitually 
overlook the fact that this has been one of its functions. 
Eeligion ignores its immense debt to Science ; and Science is 
scarcely at all conscious how much Eeligion owes it. Yet it 
is demonstrable that every step by which Eeligion has pro- 
gressed from its first low conception to the comparatively 
high one it has now reached, Science has helped it, or rather 
forced it, to take ; and that even now, Science is urging fur- 
ther steps in the same direction. 

Using the word Science in its true sense, as comprehending all 
positive and definite knowledge of the order existing among 
surrounding phenomena, it becomes manifest that from the 
outset, the discovery of an established order has modified that 
conception of disorder, or undetermined order, which under- 
lies every superstition. As fast as experience proves that 
certain familiar changes always happen in the same sequence, 
there begins to fade from the mind the conception of a special 
personality to whose variable will they were before ascribed. 
And when, step by step, accumulating observations do the like 
with the less familiar changes, a similar modification of 
belief takes place with respect to them. 

While this process seems to those who effect, and those 
who undergo it, an anti-religious one, it is really the reverse. 
Instead of the specific comprehensible agency before assigned, 
there is substituted a less specific and less comprehensible 
agency ; and though this, standing in opposition to the pre- 



■ 



THE RECONCILIATION. 103 

vious one, cannot at first call forth the same feeling, yet, as 
being less comprehensible, it must eventually call forth this 
feeling more fully. Take an instance. Of old the Sun 

was regarded as the chariot of a god, drawn by horses. How 
far the idea thus grossly expressed, was idealized, we need not 
inquire. It suffices to remark that this accounting for the 
apparent motion of the Sun by an agency like certain visible 
terrestrial agencies, reduced a daily wonder to the level of the 
commonest intellect. When, many centuries after, Kepler dis- 
covered that the planets moved round the Sun in ellipses and 
described equal areas in equal times, he concluded that in 
each planet there must exist a spirit to guide its movements. 
Here we see that with the progress of Science, there had dis- 
appeared the idea of a gross mechanical traction, such as was 
first assigned in the case of the Sun ; but that while for this 
there was substituted an indefinite and less-easily conceivable 
force, it was still thought needful to assume a special personal 
agent as a cause of the regular irregularity of motion. When, 
finally, it was proved that these planetary revolutions with 
all their variations and disturbances, conformed to one uni- 
versal law — when the presiding spirits which Kepler con- 
ceived were set aside, and the force of gravitation put in their 
place ; the change was really the abolition of an imaginable 
agency, and the substitution of an unimaginable one. For 
though the law of gravitation is within our mental grasp, it 
is impossible to realize in thought the force of gravitation. 
Newton himself confessed the force of gravitation to be in- 
comprehensible without the intermediation of an ether ; and, 
as we have already seen, (§ 18,) the assumption of an ether 
does not in the least help us. Thus it is with 

Science in general. Its progress in grouping particular 
relations of phenomena under laws, and these special laws 
under laws more and more general, is of necessity a pro- 
gress to causes that are more and more abstract. And 
causes more and more abstract, are of necessity causes less 
and less conceivable; since the formation of an abstract 



104 THE RECONCILIATION. 

conception involyes the dropping of certain concrete elements 
of thought. Hence the most abstract conception, to which 
Science is ever slowly approaching, is one that merges into 
the inconceivable or unthinkable, by the dropping of all con- 
crete elements of thought. And so is justified the assertion, 
that the beliefs which Science has forced upon Religion, have 
been intrinsically more religious than those which they sup- 
planted. 

Science however, like Religion, has but very incompletely 
fulfilled its office. As Religion has fallen short of its function 
in so far as it has been irreligious ; so has Science fallen short 
of its function in so far as it has been unscientific. Let us 
note the several parallelisms. In its earlier stages, 

Science, while it began to teach the constant relations of 
phenomena, and so discredited the belief in separate per- 
sonalities as the causes of them, itself substituted the belief 
in causal agencies which, if not personal, were yet concrete. 
"When certain facts were said to show " Nature's abhorrence 
of a vacuum," when the properties of gold were explained as 
due to some entity called " aureity," and when the phenomena 
of life were attributed to " a vital principle ; " there was set 
up a mode of interpreting the facts, which, while antagonistic 
to the religious mode, because assigning other agencies, was 
also unscientific, because it professed to know that about 
which nothing was known. Having abandoned these meta- 
physical agencies — having seen that they were not inde- 
pendent existences, but merely special combinations of general 
causes, Science has more recently ascribed extensive groups 
of phenomena to electricity, chemical affinity, and other like 
general powers. But in speaking of these as ultimate and 
independent entities, Science has preserved substantially 
the same attitude as before. Accounting thus for all phe- 
nomena, those of Life and Thought included, it has not only 
maintained its seeming antagonism to Religion, by alleging 
agencies of a radically unlike kind ; but, in so far as it has 
tacitly assumed a knowledge of these agencies, it has continued 



THE RECONCILIATION. 105 

unscientific. At the present time, however, the most advanced 
men of science are abandoning these later conceptions, as 
their predecessors abandoned the earlier ones. Magnetism, 
heat, light &c, which were awhile since spoken of as so 
many distinct imponderables, physicists are now beginning 
to regard as different modes of manifestation of some one 
universal force ; and in so doing are ceasing to think of 
this force as comprehensible. In each phase of its 

progress, Science has thus stopped short with superficial 
solutions — has unscientifically neglected to ask what was 
the nature of the agents it so familiarly invoked. Though 
in each succeeding phase it has gone a little deeper^" and 
merged its supposed agents in more general and abstract 
ones, it has still, as before, rested content with these as 
if they were ascertained realities. And this, which has 
all along been the unscientific characteristic of Science, has 
all along been a part cause of its conflict with Religion. 

§ 30. We see then that from the first, the faults of both 
Religion and Science have been the faults of imperfect de- 
velopment. Originally a mere rudiment, each has been 
growing into a more complete form ; the vice of each has in 
all times been its incompleteness ; the disagreements between 
them have throughout been nothing more than the con- 
sequences of their incompleteness ; and as they reach their 
final forms, they come into entire harmony. 

The progress of intelligence has throughout been dual. 
Though it has not seemed so to those who made it, every step 
in advance has been a step towards both the natural and the 
supernatural. The better interpretation of each phenomenon 
has been, on the one hand, the rejection of a cause that was 
relatively conceivable in its nature but unknown in the order 
of its actions, and, on the other hand, the adoption of a cause 
that was known in the order of its actions but relatively in- 
conceivable in its nature. The first advance out of universal 
fetishism, manifestly involved the conception of agencies less 
6* 



106 THE RECONCILIATION. 

assimilable to the familiar agencies of men and animals, and 
therefore less understood ; while, at the same time, such newly- 
conceived agencies in so far as they were distinguished by 
their uniform effects, were better understood than those they 
replaced. All subsequent advances display the same double 
result. Every deeper and more general power arrived at as 
a cause of phenomena, has been at once less comprehensible 
than the special ones it superseded, in the sense of being less 
definitely representable in thought ; while it has been more 
comprehensible in the sense that its actions have been more 
completely predicable. The progress has thus been as much 
towards the establishment of a positively unknown as towards 
the establishment of a positively known. Though as know- 
ledge' approaches its culmination, every unaccountable and 
seemingly supernatural fact, is brought into the category of 
facts that are accountable or natural ; yet, at the same time, 
all accountable or natural facts are proved to be in their ulti- 
mate genesis unaccountable and supernatural. And so there 
arise two antithetical states of mind, answering to the op- 
posite sides of that existence about which we think. While 
our consciousness of Nature under the one aspect constitutes 
Science, our consciousness of it under the other aspect con- 
stitutes Religion. 

Otherwise contemplating the facts, we may say that Reli- 
gion and Science have been undergoing a slow differentiation ; 
and that their ceaseless conflicts have been due to the imper- 
fect separation of their spheres and functions. Religion has, 
from the first, struggled to unite more or less science with its 
nescience ; Science has, from the first, kept hold of more or 
less nescience as though it were a part of science. Each has 
been obliged gradually to relinquish that territory which it 
wrongly claimed, while it has gained from the other that to which 
it had a right ; and the antagonism between them has been 
an inevitable accompaniment of this process. A more specific 
statement will make this clear. Religion, though at 

the outset it asserted a mystery, also made numerous definite 



THE RECONCILIATION. 107 

assertions respecting this mystery — professed to know its na- 
ture in the minutest detail ; and in so far as it claimed posi- 
tive knowledge, it trespassed upon the province of Science. 
From the times of early mythologies, when such intimate ac- 
quaintance with the mystery was alleged, down to our own 
days, when but a few abstract and vague propositions are 
maintained, Religion has been compelled by Science to give 
up one after another of its dogmas — of those assumed cogni- 
tions which it could not substantiate. In the mean time, 
Science substituted for the personalities to which Religion 
ascribed phenomena, certain metaphysical entities ; and in 
doing this it trespassed on the province of Religion ; since it 
classed among the things which it comprehended, certain 
forms of the incomprehensible. Partly by the criticisms of 
Religion, which has occasionally called in question its assump- 
tions, and partly as a consequence of spontaneous growth, 
Science has been obliged to abandon these attempts to include 
within the boundaries of knowledge that which cannot be 
known ; and has so yielded up to Religion that which of 
right belonged to it. So long as this process of 

differentiation is incomplete, more or less of antagonism 
must continue. Gradually as the limits of possible cognition 
are established, the causes of conflict will diminish. And 
a permanent peace will be reached when Science becomes 
fully convinced that its explanations are proximate and re- 
lative; while Religion becomes fully convinced that the 
mystery it contemplates is ultimate and absolute. 

Religion and Science are therefore necessary correlatives. 
As already hinted, they stand respectively for those two anti- 
thetical modes of consciousness which cannot exist asunder. 
A known cannot be thought of apart from an unknown ; nor 
can an unknown be thought of apart from a known. And by 
consequence neither can become more distinct without giving 
greater distinctness to the other. To carry further a meta- 
phor before used, — they are the positive and negative poles of 



108 THE RECONCILIATION. 

thought ; of which neither can gain in intensity without in- 
creasing the intensity of the other. 

§ 31. Thus the consciousness of an Inscrutable Power mani- 
fested to us through all phenomena, has been growing ever 
clearer ; and must eventually be freed from its imperfections. 
The certainty that on the one hand such a Power exists, while 
on the other hand its nature transcends intuition and is be- 
yond imagination, is the certainty towards which intelligence 
has from the first been progressing. To this conclusion 
Science inevitably arrives as it reaches its confines ; while to 
this conclusion Religion is irresistibly driven by criticism. 
And satisfying as it does the demands of the most rigorous 
logic at the same time that it gives the religious sentiment 
the widest possible sphere of action, it is the conclusion we 
are bound to accept without reserve or qualification. 

Some do indeed allege that though the Ultimate Cause of 
things cannot really be thought of by us as having specified 
attributes, it is yet incumbent upon us to assert these attri- 
butes. Though the forms of our consciousness are such that 
the Absolute cannot in any manner or degree be brought 
within them, we are nevertheless told that we must represent 
the Absolute to ourselves under these forms. As writes Mr 
Mansel, in the work from which I have already quoted largely 
— " It is our duty, then, to think of God as personal ; and it 
is our duty to believe that He is infinite." 

That this is not the conclusion here adopted, needs hardly 
be said. If there be any meaning in the foregoing argu- 
ments, duty requires us neither to aflirm nor deny personality. 
Our duty is to submit ourselves with all humility to the 
established limits of our intelligence ; and not perversely to 
rebel against them. Let those who can, believe that there is 
eternal war set between our intellectual faculties and our mo- 
ral obligations. I for one, admit no such radical vice in the 
constitution of things. 






THE RECONCILIATION. 109 

This which to most will seem an essentially irreligious po- 
sition, is an essentially religions one — nay is the religious one, 
to which, as already shown, all others are but approximations. 
In the estimate it implies of the Ultimate Cause, it does not 
fall short of the alternative position, but exceeds it. Those 
who espouse this alternative position, make the erroneous as- 
sumption that the choice is between personality and some- 
thing lower than personality ; whereas the choice is rather 
between personality and something higher. Is it not just 
possible that there is a mode of being as much transcending 
Intelligence and Will, as these transcend mechanical motion ? 
It is true that we are (totally) unable to conceive any such 
higher mode of being. But this is not a reason for question- 
ing its existence ; it is rather the reverse. Have we not seen 
how utterly incompetent our minds are to form even an ap- 
proach to a conception of that which underlies all phe- 
nomena ? Is it not proved that this incompetency is the incom- 
petency of the Conditioned to grasp the Unconditioned ? Does 
it not follow that the Ultimate Cause cannot in any respect be 
conceived by us because it is in every respect greater than can 
be conceived ? And may we not therefore rightly refrain 
from assigning to it any attributes whatever, on the ground 
that such attributes, derived as they must be from our own 
natures, are not elevations but degradations ? Indeed it seems 
somewhat strange that men should suppose the highest wor- 
ship to lie in assimilating the object of their worship to them- 
selves. Not in asserting a transcendant difference, but in as- 
serting a certain likeness, consists the element of their creed 
which they think essential. It is true that from the time 
when the rudest savages imagined the causes of all things to 
be creatures of flesh and blood like themselves, down to our 
own time, the degree of assumed likeness has been diminishing. 
But though a bodily form and substance similar to that of man, 
has long since ceased, among cultivated races, to be a literally- 
conceived attribute of the Ultimate Cause — though the grosser 
human desires nave been also rejected as unfit elements of the S* 



110 THE RECONCILIATION. 

conception — though, there is some hesitation in ascribing even 
the higher human feelings, save in greatly idealized shapes ; 
yet it is still thought not only proper, but imperative, to 
ascribe the most abstract qualities of our nature. To think of 
the Creative Power as in all respects anthropomorphous, is now 
considered impious by men who yet hold themselves bound to 
think of the Creative Power as in some respects anthropomor- 
phous ; and who do not see that the one proceeding is but an 
evanescent form of the other. And then, most marvellous of 
all, this course is persisted in even by those who contend that 
we are wholly unable to frame any conception whatever of 
the Creative Power. After it has been shown that every sup- 
position respecting the genesis of the Universe commits us to 
alternative impossibilities of thought — after it has been 
shown that each attempt to conceive real existence ends in an 
intellectual suicide — after it has been shown why, by the very 
constitution of our minds, we are eternally debarred from 
thinking of the Absolute ; it is still asserted that we ought 
to think of the Absolute thus and thus. In all imaginable 
ways we find thrust upon us the truth, that we are not per- 
mitted to know — nay are not even permitted to conceive — 
that Reality which is behind the veil of Appearance ; and 
yet it is said to be our duty to believe (and in so far to con- 
ceive) that this Reality exists in a certain defined manner. 
Shall we call this reverence ? or shall we call it the reverse ? 
Yolumes might be written upon the impiety of the pious. 
Through the printed and spoken thoughts of religious teachers, 
may almost everywhere be traced a professed familiarity with 
the ultimate mystery of things, which, to say the least of it, 
seems anything but congruous with the accompanying expres- 
sions of humility. And surprisingly enough, those tenets which 
most clearly display this familiarity, are those insisted upon 
as forming the vital elements of religious belief. The attitude 
thus assumed, can be fitly represented only by further develop- 
ing a simile long current in theological controversies — the 
simile of the watch. If for a moment we made the grotesque 



THE RECONCILIATION. 



Ill 



supposition that the tickings and other movements of a watch 
constituted a kind of consciousness ; and that a watch possessed 
of such a consciousness, insisted on regarding the watchmaker's 
actions as determined like its own by springs and escapements ; 
we should simply complete a parallel of which religious 
teachers think much. And were we to suppose that a watch 
not only formulated the cause of its existence in these 
mechanical terms, bjut held that watches were bound out of 
reverence so to formulate this cause, and even vituperated, as 
atheistic watches, any that did not venture so to formulate it ; 
we should merely illustrate the presumption of theologians by 
carrying their own argument a step further. A few 

extracts will bring home to the reader the justice of this 
comparison. We are told, for example, by one of high 
repute among religious thinkers, that the Universe is " the 
manifestation and abode of a Free Mind, like our own ; em- 
bodying His personal thought in its adjustments, realizing 
His own ideal in its phenomena, just as we express own inner 
faculty and character through the natural language of an ex- 
ternal life. In this view, we interpret Nature by Humanity ; 
we find the key to her aspects in such purposes and affections 
as our own consciousness enables us to conceive ; we look 
everywhere for physical signals of an ever-living Will ; and 
decipher the universe as the autobiography of an Infinite 
Spirit, repeating itself in miniature within our Finite Spirit." 
The same writer goes still further. He not only thus parallels 
the assimilation of the watchmaker to the watch, — he not only 
thinks the created can "decipher" "the autobiography" of 
the Creating ; but he asserts that the necessary limits of the 
one are necessary limits of the other. The primary qualities 
of bodies, he says, " belong eternally to the material datum ob- 
jective to Grod " and control his acts ; while the secondary 
ones are " products of pure Inventive Reason and Determining 
Will" — constitute "the realm of Divine originality." * * * 
" While on this Secondary field His Mind and ours are thus 
contrasted, they meet in resemblance again upon the Primary: 



112 THE RECONCILIATION. 

for the evolutions of deductive Reason there is but one track 
possible to all intelligences ; no merum arbitrium can inter- 
change the false and true, or make more than one geometry, 
one scheme of pure Physics, for all worlds ; and the Omnipo- 
tent Architect Himself, in realizing the Kosmical conception, 
in shaping the orbits out of immensity and determining seasons 
out of eternity, could but follow the laws of curvature, mea- 
sure and proportion. ' ' That is to say, the Ultimate Cause is like 
a human mechanic, not only as "shaping" the "material datum 
objective to " Him, but also as being obliged to conform to 
the necessary properties of that datum. " Nor is this all. 
There follows some account of "the Divine psychology," to 
the extent of saying that " we learn " " the character of God 
— the order of affections in Him " from " the distribution of 
authority in the hierarchy of our impulses.". In other words, 
it is alleged that the Ultimate Cause has desires that are to be 
classed as higher and lower like our own.* Every 

one has heard of the king who wished he had been present at 
the creation of the world, that he might have given good ad- 
vice. He was humble however compared with those who pro- 
fess to understand not only the relation of the Creating to the 
created, but also how the Creating is constituted. And yet 
this transcendant audacity, which claims to penetrate the 
secrets of the Power manifested to us through all existence — 
nay even to stand behind that Power and note the conditions 
to its action— this it is which passes current as piety ! May 
we not without hesitation affirm that a sincere recognition of 
the truth that our own and all other existence is a mystery 
absolutely and for ever beyond our comprehension, contains 
more of true religion than all the dogmatic theology ever 
written ? 

Meanwhile let us recognize whatever of permanent good 
there is in these persistent attempts to frame conceptions of 
that which cannot be conceived. From the beginning it has 

* These extracts are from an article entitled " Nature and God," published in 
the National Review for October, 1860. 



THE RECONCILIATION. 113 

been only through, the successive failures of such conceptions 
to satisfy the mind, that higher and higher ones have been 
gradually reached; and doubtless, the conceptions now current 
are indispensable as transitional modes of thought. Even 
more than this may be willingly conceded. It is possible, 
nay probable, that under their most abstract forms, ideas of 
this order will always continue to occupy the background of 
our consciousness. Yery likely there will ever remain a need 
to give shape to that indefinite sense of an Ultimate Existence, 
which forms the basis of our intelligence. We shall always 
be under the necessity of contemplating it as some mode of be- 
ing ; that is — of representing it to ourselves in some form of 
thought, however vague. And we shall not err in doing this 
so long as we treat every notion we thus frame as merely a 
symbol, utterly without resemblance to that for which it 
stands. Perhaps the constant formation of such symbols and 
constant rejection of them as inadequate, may be hereafter, 
as it has hitherto been, a means of discipline. Perpetually to 
construct ideas requiring the utmost stretch of our faculties, 
and perpetually to find that such ideas must be abandoned as 
futile imaginations, may realize to us more fully than any other 
course, the greatness of that which we vainly strive to grasp. 
Such efforts and failures may serve to maintain in our minds 
a due sense of the incommensurable difference between the 
Conditioned and the Unconditioned. By continually seeking 
to know and being continually thrown back with a deepened 
conviction of the impossibility of knowing, we may keep alive 
the consciousness that it is alike our highest wisdom and our 
highest duty to regard that through which all things exist as 
The Unknowable. 

§ 32. An immense majority will refuse with more or less of 
indignation,' a belief seeming to them so shadowy and indefinite. 
Having always embodied the Ultimate Cause so far as was 
needful to its mental realization, they must necessarily resent 
the substitution of an Ultimate Cause which cannot be men- 






114 THE RECONCILIATION. 

tally realized at all. " You offer us," they say, " an unthink- 
able abstraction in place of a Being towards whom we may 
entertain definite feelings. Though we are told that the Ab- 
solute is real, yet since we are not allowed to conceive it, it 
might as well be a pure negation. Instead of a Power which 
we can regard as having some sympathy with us, you would 
have us contemplate a Power to which no emotion whatever 
can be ascribed. And so we are to be deprived of the very 
substance of our faith," 

This kind of protest of necessity accompanies every change 
from a lower creed to a higher. The belief in a community 
of nature between himself and the object of his worship, has 
always been to man a satisfactory one ; and he has always 
accepted with reluctance those successively less concrete con- 
ceptions which have been forced upon him. Doubtless, in all 
times and places, it has consoled the barbarian to think of his 
deities as so exactly like himself in nature, that they could be 
bribed by offerings of food ; and the assurance that deities 
could not be so propitiated, must have been repugnant, be- 
cause it deprived him of an easy method of gaining super- 
natural protection. To the Greeks it was manifestly a source 
of comfort that on occasions of difficulty they could obtain, 
through oracles, the advice of their gods, — nay, might even 
get the personal aid of their gods in battle ; and it was pro- 
bably a very genuine anger which they visited upon philo- 
sophers who called in question these gross ideas of their my- 
thology. A religion which teaches the Hindoo that it is 
impossible to purchase eternal happiness by placing himself 
under the wheel of Juggernaut, can scarcely fail to seem a 
cruel one to him; since it deprives him of the pleasurable 
consciousness that he can at will exchange miseries for joys. 
Nor is it less clear that to our Catholic ancestors, the beliefs 
that crimes could be compounded for by the building of 
churches, that their own punishments and those of their re- 
latives could be abridged by the saying of masses, and that 
divine aid or forgiveness might be gained through the inter- 



THE RECONCILIATION. 115 

cession of saints, were highly solacing ones ; and that Pro- 
testantism, in substituting the conception of a God so com- 
paratively unlike ourselves as not to be influenced by such 
methods, must have appeared to them hard and cold. 
Naturally, therefore, we must expect a further step in the 
same direction to meet with a similar resistance from outraged 
sentiments. No mental revolution can be accomplished 

without more or less of laceration. Be it a change of habit or 
a change of conviction, it must, if the habit or conviction be 
strong, do violence to some of the feelings ; and these must 
of course oppose it. For long-experienced, and therefore 
definite, sources of satisfaction, have to be substituted sources 
of satisfaction that have not been experienced, and are 
therefore indefinite. That which is relatively well known 
and real, has to be given up for that which is relatively 
unknown and ideal. And of course such an exchange cannot 
be made without a conflict involving pain. Espe- 

cially then must there arise a strong antagonism to 
any alteration in so deep and vital a conception as that 
with which we are here dealing. Underlying, as this 
conception does, all others, a modification of it threatens to 
reduce the superstructure to ruins. Or to change the 
metaphor — being the root with which are connected our 
ideas of goodness, rectitude, or duty, it appears impossible 
that it should be transformed without causing these to 
wither away and die. The whole higher part of the nature 
almost of necessity takes up arms against a change which, by 
destroying the established associations of thought, seems 
to eradicate morality. 

This is by no means all that has to be said for such pro- 
tests. There is a much deeper meaning in them. They do 
not simply express the natural repugnance to a revolution of 
belief, here made specially intense by the vital importance of 
the belief to be revolutionized ; but they also express an 
instinctive adhesion to a belief that is in one sense the best 
— the best for those who thus cling to it, though not ab- 



116 THE RECONCILIATION. 

straetedly the best. For here let me remark that 

what were above spoken of as the imperfections of Religion, 
at first great but gradually diminishing, have been imperfec- 
tions only as measured by an absolute standard ; and not as 
measured by a relative one. Speaking generally, the religion 
current in each age and among each people, has been as 
near an approximation to the truth as it was then and there 
possible for men to receive : the more or less concrete forms 
in which it has embodied the truth, have simply been the 
means of making thinkable what would otherwise have been 
unthinkable ; and so have for the time being served to 
increase its impressiveness. If we consider the con- 

ditions of the case, we shall find this to be an unavoidable 
conclusion. During each stage of evolution, men must think 
in such terms of thought as they possess. While all the 
conspicuous changes of which they can observe the origins, 
have men and animals as antecedents, they are unable to 
think of antecedents in general under any other shapes ; and 
hence creative agencies are of necessity conceived by them 
in these shapes. If during this phase, these concrete con- 
ceptions were taken from them, and the attempt made to 
give them comparatively abstract conceptions, the result 
would be to leave their minds with none at all ; since the 
substituted ones could not be mentally represented. Simi- 
larly with every successive stage of religious belief, down to 
the last. Though, as accumulating experiences slowly mo- 
dify the earliest ideas of causal personalities, there grow up 
more general and vague ideas of them ; yet these cannot be 
at once replaced by others still more general and vague. 
Further experiences must supply the needful further abstrac- 
tions, before the mental void left by the destruction of such 
inferior ideas can be filled by ideas of a superior order. And 
at the present time, the refusal to abandon a relatively concrete 
notion for a relatively abstract one, implies the inability to 
frame the relatively abstract one ; and so proves that the 
change would be premature and injurious. Still 




THE RECONCILIATION. 117 

more clearly shall we see the injuriousness of any such 
premature change, on observing that the effects of a belief 
upon conduct must be diminished in proportion as the vivid- 
ness with which it is realized becomes less. Evils and 
benefits akin to those which the savage has personally felt, 
or learned from those who have felt them, are the only evils 
and benefits he can understand ; and these must be looked 
for as coming in ways like those of which he has had ex- 
perience. His deities must be imagined to have like mo- 
tives and passions and methods with the beings around him ; 
for motives and passions and methods of a higher character, 
being unknown to him, and in great measure unthinkable by 
him, cannot be so realized in thought as to influence his 
deeds. During every phase of civilization, the actions of 
the Unseen Reality, as well as the resulting rewards and 
punishments, being conceivable only in such forms as ex- 
perience furnishes, to supplant them by higher ones before 
wider experiences have made higher ones conceivable, is to 
set up vague and uninfluential motives for definite and in- 
fluential ones. Even now, for the great mass of men, 
unable through lack of culture to trace out with due clear- 
ness those good and bad consequences which conduct brings 
round through the established order of the Unknowable, it is 
needful that there should be vividly depicted future torments 
and future joys — pains and pleasures of a definite kind, produced 
in a manner direct and simple enough to be clearly ima- 
gined. Nay still more must be conceded. Few if any 
are as yet fitted wholly to dispense with such conceptions as are 
current. The highest abstractions take so great a mental power 
to realize with any vividness, and are so inoperative upon con- 
duct unless they are vividly realized, that their regulative ef- 
fects must for a long period to come be appreciable on but a 
small minority. To see clearly how a right or wrong act 
generates consequences, internal and external, that go on 
branching out more widely as years progress, requires a rare 
power of analysis. To mentally represent even a single series 



118 THE RECONCILIATION. 

of these consequences, as it stretches out into the remote future, 
requires an equally rare power of imagination. And to esti- 
mate these consequences in their totality, ever multiplying in 
number while diminishing in intensity, requires a grasp of 
thought possessed by none. Yet it is only by such analysis, 
such imagination, and such grasp, that conduct can be right- 
ly guided in the absence of all other control : only so can ul- 
timate rewards and penalties be made to outweigh proximate 
pains and pleasures. Indeed, were it not that throughout the 
progress of the race, men's experiences of the effects of conduct 
have been slowly generalized into principles — were it not that 
these principles have been from generation to generation in- 
sisted on by parents, upheld by public opinion, sanctified by re- 
ligion, and enforced by threats of eternal damnation for dis- 
obedience — were it not that under these potent influences, 
habits have been modified, and the feelings proper to them 
made innate — were it not, in short, that we have been 
rendered in a considerable degree organically moral ; it is 
certain that disastrous results would ensue from the removal 
of those strong and distinct motives which the current belief 
supplies. Even as it is, those who relinquish the faith in 
which they have been brought up, for this most abstract faith 
in which Science and Religion unite, may not uncommonly 
fail to act up to their convictions. Left to their organic mor- 
ality, enforced only by general reasonings imperfectly wrought 
out and difficult to keep before the mind, their defects of 
nature will often come out more strongly than they would 
have done under their previous creed. The substituted creed 
can become adequately operative only when it becomes, like 
the present one, an element in early education, and has the 
support of a strong social sanction. Nor will men be quite 
ready for it until, through the continuance of a discipline 
which has already partially moulded them to the conditions 
of social existence, they are completely moulded to those 
conditions. 
f We must therefore recognize the resistance to a change of 



THE RECONCILIATION. 119 

theological opinion, as in great measure salutary. It is not 
simply that strong and deep-rooted feelings are necessarily 
excited to antagonism — it is not simply that the highest moral 
sentiments join in the condemnation of a change which seems 
to undermine their authority ; but it is that a real adaptation 
exists between an established belief and the natures of those 
who defend it ; and that the tenacity of the defence measures 
the completeness of the adaptation. Forms of religion, like forms 
of government, must be fit for those who live under them ; and 
in the one case as in the other, that form which is fittest is that 
for which there is an instinctive preference. As certainly as a 
barbarous race needs a harsh terrestrial rule, and habitually 
shows attachment to a despotism capable of the necessary 
rigour ; so certainly does such a race need a belief in a celes- 
tial rule that is similarly harsh, and habitually shows attach- 
ment to such a belief. And just in the same way that the sud- 
den substitution of free institutions for tyrannical ones, is sure 
to be followed by a reaction ; so, if a creed full of dreadful 
ideal penalties is all at once replaced by one presenting ideal 
penalties that are comparatively gentle, there will inevitably 
be a return to some modification of the old belief. The 

parallelism holds yet further. During those early stages in 
which there is an extreme incongruity between the relatively 
best and the absolutely best, both political and religious changes, 
when at rare intervals they occur, are necessarily violent ; and 
necessarily entail violent retrogressions. But as the incongruity 
between that which is and that which should be, diminishes, the 
changes become more moderate, and are succeeded by more mo- 
derate retrogressions ; until, as these movements and counter- 
movements decrease in amount and increase in frequency, 
they merge into an almost continuous growth. That adhesion 
to old institutions and beliefs, which, in primitive societies, 
opposes an iron barrier to any advance, and which, after the 
barrier has been at length burst through, brings back the in- 
stitutions and beliefs from that too-forward position to which 
the momentum of change had carried them, and so helps to 



120 THE RECONCILIATION. 

re- adapt social conditions to the popular character — this adhe- 
sion to old institution and beliefs, eventually becomes the con- 
stant check by which the constant advance is prevented from 
being too rapid. This holds true of religious creeds and forms, 
as of civil ones. And so we learn that theological conserva- 
tism, like political conservatism, has an all-important function. 

/ § 33. That spirit of toleration which is so marked a charac- 
teristic of modern times, and is daily growing more conspicu- 
ous, has thus a far deeper meaning than is supposed. What 
we commonly regard simply as a due respect for the right of 
private judgment, is really a necessary condition to the bal- 
ancing of the progressive and conservative tendencies — is a 
means of maintaining the adaptation between men's beliefs 
and their natures. It is therefore a spirit to be fostered ; and 
it is a spirit which the catholic thinker, who perceives the func- 
tions of these various conflicting creeds, should above all other 
men display. Doubtless whoever feels the greatness 

of the error to which his fellows cling and the greatness of the 
truth which they reject, will find it hard to show a due pa- 
tience. It is hard for him to listen calmly to the futile argu- 
ments used in support of irrational doctrines, and to the mis- 
representation of antagonist doctrines. It is hard for him to 
bear the manifestation of that pride of ignorance which so far 
exceeds the pride of science. Naturally enough such a one 
will be indignant when charged with irreligion because he 
declines to accept the carpenter- theory of creation as the most 
worthy one. He may think it needless as it is difficult, to con- 
ceal his repugnance to a creed which tacitly ascribes to The 
Unknowable a love of adulation such as would be despised in 
a human being. Convinced as he is that all punishment, as 
we see it wrought out in the order of nature, is but a disguised 
beneficence, there will perhaps escape from him an angry con- 
demnation of the belief that punishment is a divine vengeance, 
and that divine vengeance is eternal. He may be tempted to 
show his contempt when he is told that actions instigated by 



THE RECONCILIATION. 121 

an unselfish sympathy or by a pure love of rectitude, are 
intrinsically sinful ; 'and that conduct is truly good only 
when it is due to a faith whose openly-professed motive is 
other- worldliness. }But he must restrain such feelings. Though 
he may be unable to do this during the excitement of contro- 
versy, or when otherwise brought face to face with current 
superstitions, he must yet qualify his antagonism in calmer 
moments ; so that his mature judgment and resulting conduct 
may be without bias. 

To this end let him ever bear in mind three cardinal 
facts — two of them already dwelt upon, and one still to be 
pointed out. The first is that with which we set 

out ; namely the existence of a fundamental verity under 
all forms of religion, however degraded. In each of them 
there is a soul of truth. Through the gross body of dogmas 
traditions and rites which contain it, it is always visible — 
dimly or clearly as the case may be. This it is which gives 
vitality even to the rudest creed ; this it is which survives 
every modification ; and this it is which we must not forget 
when condemning the forms under which it is present- 
ed. The second of these cardinal facts, set forth at 
length in the foregoing section, is, that while those concrete 
elements in which each creed embodies this soul of truth, 
are bad as measured by an absolute standard, they are good 
as measured by a relative standard. Though from higher 
perceptions they hide the abstract verity within them ; yet 
to lower perceptions they render this verity more appreciable 
than it would otherwise be. They serve to make real and 
influential over men, that which would else be unreal and unin- 
fluential. Or we may call them the protective envelopes, 
without which the contained truth would die. The 
remaining cardinal fact is, that these various beliefs are 
parts of the constituted order of things ; and not accidental 
but necessary parts. Seeing how one or other of them is 
everywhere present ; is of perennial growth ; and when 
cut down, redevelopes in a form but slighty modified ; we 
7 



122 THE RECONCILIATION. 

cannot avoid the inference that they are needful accompani- 
ments of human life, severally fitted to the societies in 
which they are indigenous. From the highest point of 
view, we must recognize them as elements in that great 
evolution of which the beginning and end are beyond our 
knowledge or conception — as modes of manifestation of The 
Unknowable ; and as having this for their warrant. 

Our toleration therefore should be the widest possible. Or 
rather, we should aim at something beyond toleration, as com- 
monly understood. In dealing with alien beliefs, our endea- 
vour must be, not simply to refrain from injustice of word or 
deed ; but also to do justice by an open recognition of positive 
worth. We must qualify our disagreement with as much as 
may be of sympathy. 

§ 34. These admissions will perhaps be held to imply, that 
the current theology should be passively accepted ; or, at any 
rate, should not be actively opposed. " Why," it may be 
asked, " if all creeds have an average fitness to their times and 
places, should we not rest content with that to which we are 
born? If the established belief contains an essential truth 
— if the forms under which it presents this truth, though 
intrinsically bad, are extrinsically good — if the abolition of 
these forms would be at present detrimental to the great ma- 
jority — nay, if there are scarcely any to whom the ultimate 
and most abstract belief can furnish an adequate rule of life ; 
surely it is wrong, for the present at least, to propagate this 
ultimate and most abstract belief." 

The reply is, that though existing religious ideas and in- 
stitutions have an average adaptation to the characters of the 
people who live under them ; yet, as these characters are ever 
changing, the adaptation is ever becoming imperfect ; and the 
ideas and institutions need remodelling with a frequency pro- 
portionate to the rapidity of the change. Hence, while it is 
requisite that free play should be given to conservative thought 
and action, progressive thought and action must also have free 



THE RECONCILIATION. 123 

play. Without the agency of both, there cannot be those con- 
tinual re-adaptations which orderly progress demands. 

Whoever hesitates to utter that which he thinks the high- 
est truth, lest it should be too much in advance of the time, 
may reassure himself by looking at his acts from an imper- 
sonal point of view. Let him duly realize the fact that opin- 
ion is the agency through which character adapts external 
arrangements to itself — that his opinion rightly forms part of 
this agency — is a unit of force, constituting, with other such 
units, the general power which works out social changes ; and 
he will perceive that he may properly give full utterance to 
his innermost conviction : leaving it to produce what effect it 
may. It is not for nothing that he has in him these sympa- 
thies with some principles and repugnance to others. He, 
with all his capacities, and aspirations, and beliefs, is not an 
accident, but a product of the time. He must remember that 
while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the fu- 
ture ; and that his thoughts are as children born to him, 
which he may not carelessly let die. He, like every other 
man, may properly consider himself as one of the myriad 
agencies through whom works the Unknown Cause ; and 
when the Unknown Cause produces in him a certain belief, 
he is thereby authorized to profess and act out that belief. 
For, to render in their highest sense the words of the poet — 



Nature is made better by no mean, 

But nature makes that mean : over that art 
Which you say adds to nature, is an art 
That nature makes. 

Not as adventitious therefore will the wise man regard the 
faith which is in him. The highest truth he sees he will 
fearlessly utter ; knowing that, let what may come of it,, he is 
thus playing his right part in the world — knowing that if he 
can effect the change he aims at — well : if not— well also ; 
though not so welL 



PAST II. 
LAWS OF THE KNOWABLE. 



CHAPTER I. 

LAWS IN GENEEAL. 

§ 35. We have seen that intellectual advance has been 
dual — has been towards the establishment of both a positively 
unknown and a positively known. In making ever more 
certain the inaccessibility of one kind of truth, experience has 
made ever more certain the accessibility of another kind. 
The differentiation of the knowable from the unknowable, is 
shown as much in the reduction of the one to perfect clear- 
ness, as in the reduction of the other to impenetrable mystery. 
Progressing enlightenment discloses a definite limit to hu- 
man intelligence ; and while all which lies on the other side 
of the limit, is, with increasing distinctness, seen to transcend 
our finite faculties, it grows more and more obvious that all 
which lies on this side of the limit may become an indisput- 
able possession. 

To speak specifically — it has been shown that though we 
can never learn the nature of that which is manifested to us, 
we are daily learning more completely the order of its mani- 
festations. "We are conscious of effects produced in us by 
something separate from ourselves. The effects of which 
we are conscious — the changes of consciousness which make 
up our mental life, we ascribe to the forces of an external 
world. The intrinsic character of these forces — of this ex- 
ternal world — of that which underlies all appearances, we 
find inscrutable ; as is also the internal something whose 
changes constitute consciousness. But at the same time we 



128 LAWS IN GENERAL. 

find that among the changes of consciousness thus produced, 
there exist various constant relations ; and we have no choice 
but to ascribe constancy to the relations which subsist among 
the inscrutable causes of these changes. Observation early 
discloses certain invariable connexions of coexistence and 
sequence among phenomena. Accumulating experiences 
tend continually to augment the number of invariable con- 
nexions recognized. "When, as in the later stages of civiliza- 
tion, there arises not only a diligent gathering together of 
experiences but a critical comparison of them, more remote 
and complex connexions are added to the list. And gra- 
dually there grows up the habit of regarding these uniformi- 
ties of relation as characterizing all manifestations of the 
Unknowable. Under the endless variety and seeming irregu- 
larity, there is ever more clearly discerned that " constant 
course of procedure " which we call Law. 

The growing belief in the universality of Law, is so con- 
spicuous to all cultivated minds as scarcely to need illustra- 
tion. None who read these pages will ask for proof that this 
has been the central element of intellectual progress. But 
though the fact is sufficiently familiar, the philosophy of the 
fact is not so ; and it will be desirable now to consider it. 
Partly because the development of our conception of Law will 
so be rendered more comprehensible ; but chiefly because our 
subsequent course will thus be facilitated ; I propose here to 
enumerate the several conditions that determine the order in 
which the various relations among phenomena are discovered. 
Seeing, as we shall, the consequent necessity of this order ; 
and enabled, as we shall also be, to estimate the future by in- 
ference from the past; we shall perceive how inevitable is 
our advance towards the ultimatum that has been indi- 
cated. 

§ 36. The recognition of Law, being the recognition of uni- 
formity of relations among phenomena, it follows that the 
order in which different groups of phenomena are reduced to 



LAWS IN GENERAL. 129 

law, must depend on the frequency' and distinctness with 
which the uniform relations they severally present, are expe- 
rienced. At any given stage of progress, those uniformities 
will be most recognized with which men's minds have been 
oftenest and most strongly impressed. In proportion partly 
to the number of times a -relation has been presented to 
consciousness (not merely to the senses) ; and in proportion 
partly to the vividness with which the terms of the relation 
have been cognized ; will be the degree in which the con- 
stancy of connexion is perceived. 

The frequency and impressiveness with which different 
classes of relations are repeated in conscious experience, thus 
primarily determining the succession in which they are ge- 
neralized, there result certain derivative principles to which 
this succession^ must more immediately and obviously con- 
form. First in importance comes the directness with 
which personal welfare is affected. "While, among surrounding 
things, many do not appreciably influence the body in any 
way, some act detrimentally and some beneficially, in various 
degrees ; and manifestly, those things whose actions on the 
organism are most influential, will, cseteris paribus, be those 
whose laws of action are earliest observed. Second 
in order, is the conspicuousness of one or both the phenomena 
between which a relation is to be perceived. On every side are 
countless phenomena so concealed as to be detected only by 
close observation^; others not obtrusive enough to attract 
notice ; others which moderately solicit the t attention ; others 
so imposing or vivid as to force themselves upon conscious- 
ness ; and supposing incidental conditions to be the same, these 
last will of course be among the first to have their relations 
generalized. In the third place, we have the absolute 
frequency with which the relations occur. There are coexist- 
ences and sequences of all degrees of commonness, from those 
which are ever present to those which are extremely rare ; 
and it is clear that the rare coexistences and sequences, as 
well as the sequences which are very long in taking place, 
?* u I 



130 LAWS IN GENERAL. 

will not be reduced to law so soon as those which are familiar 
and rapid. Fourthly has to be added the relative 

frequency of occurrence. Many events and appearances are 
more or less limited to times and places ; and as a relation 
which does not exist within the environment of an observer, 
cannot be cognized by him, however common it may be else- 
where or in another age, we have to take account of the sur- 
rounding physical circumstances, as well as the state of 
society, of the arts, and of the sciences — all of which affect 
the frequency with which certain groups of facts are exposed 
to observation. The fifth corollary to be noticed, is, 

that the succession in which different classes of phenomena are 
reduced to law, depends in part on their simplicity. Pheno- 
mena presenting great composition of causes or conditions, 
have their essential relations so masked, that it requires ac- 
cumulated experiences to impress upon consciousness the true 
connexion of antecedents and consequents they involve. Hence, 
other things equal, the progress of generalization will be 
from the simple to the complex; and this it is which M. 
Comte has wrongly asserted to be the sole regulative prin- 
ciple of the progress. Sixth, and last, comes the degree 
of abstractness. Concrete relations are the earliest acquisitions. 
The colligation of any group of these into a general relation, 
which is the first step in abstraction, necessarily comes later 
than the discovery of the relations colligated. The union of a 
number of these lowest generalizations into a higher and 
more abstract generalization, is necessarily subsequent to the 
formation of such lowest generalizations. And so on con- 
tinually, until the highest and most abstract generalizations 
have been reached. 

These then are the several derivative principles. The fre-r 
quency and vividness with which uniform relations, are re- 
peated in conscious experience, determining the recognition 
of their uniformity; and this frequency and vividness de- 
pending on the above conditions ; it follows that the order in 
which different classes of facts are generalized, must depend 



LAWS IN GENERAL. 131 

on the extent to which the above conditions are fulfilled in 
each class. Let us mark how the facts harmonize with this 
conclusion : taking first a few that elucidate the general 
truth, and afterwards some that are illustrative of the several 
special truths which we here see follow from it. 

§ 37. The relations earliest known as unifonnities, are those 
subsisting between the common physical properties of mat- 
ter — tangibility, visibility, cohesion, weight &c. We have no 
trace of an era in human history when the resistance offered 
by every visible object, was regarded as caused by the will 
of the object ; or when the pressure of a body on the hand 
supporting it, was ascribed to the direct agency of a living 
being. And accordingly, we see that these are the relations 
oftenest repeated in consciousness ; being as they are, object- 
ively frequent, conspicuous, simple, concrete, and of immedi- 
ate personal concern. 

Similarly with respect to the ordinary phenomena of motion. 
The fall of a mass on the withdrawal of its support, is a 
sequence which directly affects bodily welfare, is conspicuous, 
simple, concrete, and very often repeated. Hence it is one 
of the uniformities recognized before the dawn of tradition. 
We know of no time when movements due to terrestrial gra- 
vitation were attributed to volition. Only when the relation 
is obscured — only, as in the case of an aerolite, where the 
antecedent of the descent is unperceived, do we find the 
fetishistic conception persistent. On the other hand, 

motions of intrinsically the same order as that of a falling 
stone — those of the heavenly bodies — long remain un- 
generalized ; and until their uniformity is seen, are construed 
as results of will. This difference is clearly not dependent 
on comparative complexity or abstractness ; since the motion 
of a planet in an ellipse, is as simple and concrete a phe- 
nomenon as the motion of a projected arrow in a parabola. 
But the antecedents are not conspicuous ; the sequences are 
of long duration ; and they are infrequently repeated. 



132 LAWS IN GENERAL. 

Hence in a given period, there cannot be the same multiplied 
experiences of them. And that this is the chief cause of their 
slow reduction to law, we see in the fact that they are sever- 
ally generalized in the order of their frequency and con- 
spicuousness — the moon's monthly cycle, the sun's annual 
change, the periods of the inferior planets, the periods of the 
superior planets. 

While astronomical sequences were still ascribed to voli- 
tion, certain terrestrial sequences of a different kind, but some 
of them equally without complication, were interpreted in like 
manner. The solidification of water at a low temperature,- is 
a phenomenon that is simple, concrete, and of much personal 
concern. But it is neither so frequent as those which we 
saw are earliest generalized, nor is the presence of the ante- 
cedent so uniformly conspicuous. Though in all but tropical 
climates, mid- winter displays the relation between cold and 
freezing with tolerable constancy ; yet, during the spring and 
autumn, the occasional appearance of ice in the mornings has 
no very manifest connexion with coldness of the weather. 
Sensation being so inaccurate a measure, it is not possible for 
the savage to experience the definite relation between a 
temperature of 32° and the congealing of water ; and hence 
the long-continued conception of personal agency. Similarly, 
but still more clearly, with the winds. The absence of re- 
gularity and the inconspicuousness of the antecedents, allow- 
ed the mythological explanation to survive for a great period. 
During the era in which the uniformity of many quite 
simple inorganic relations was still unrecognized, certain 
classes of organic relations, intrinsically very complex and 
special, were generalized. The constant coexistence of 
feathers and a beak, of four legs with a bony internal frame- 
work, of a particular leaf with poisonous berries, are facts 
which were, and are, familiar to every savage. Did a savage 
find a bird with teeth, or a mammal clothed with feathers, he 
would be as much surprised as an instructed naturalist ; and 
would probably make a fetish of the anomalous form : so 



LAWS IN GENERAL. 133 

showing that while the exceptional relation suggested the 
notion of a personal cause, the habitual relation did not. 
Now these uniformities of organic structure which are so 
early perceived, are of exactly the same class as those more 
numerous ones later established by biology. The constant 
coexistence of mammary glands with two occipital condyles 
in the skull, of vertebraa with teeth lodged in sockets, of 
frontal horns with the habit of rumination, are generaliza- 
tions as purely empirical as those known to the aboriginal 
hunter. The vegetal physiologist cannot in the least 
understand the complex relation between the kind of leaf 
and the kind of fruit borne by a particular plant : he 
knows these and like connexions simply in the same 
manner that the barbarian knows them. But the fact that 
sundry of the uniform relations which chiefly make up 
the organic sciences, were very early recognized, is due to 
the high degree of vividness and frequency with which they 
were presented to consciousness. Though the connexion be- 
tween the form of a given creature and the sound it makes, 
or the quality of its fur, or the nature of its flesh, is extremely 
involved ; yet the two terms of the relation are conspicuous ; 
are usually observed in close juxtaposition in time and space ; 
are so observed perhaps daily, or many times a day ; and above 
all a knowledge of their connexion has a direct and obvious 
bearing on personal welfare. Meanwhile, we see that in- 
numerable other relations of exactly the same order, which 
are displayed with even greater frequency by surrounding 
plants and animals, remain for thousands of years unrecog- 
nized, if they are unobtrusive or of no apparent moment. 

"When, passing from this primitive stage to a more advanced 
stage, we trace the discovery of those less familiar uniformities 
which constitute what is technically distinguished as Science, 
we find the order of discovery to be still determined in the 
same manner. We shall most clearly see this in contemplat- 
ing separately the influence of each derivative condition ; as 
was proposed in the last section. 



134 LAWS IN GENEKAL. 

§ 38. How relations that have an immediate bearing on the 
maintenance of life, are, other things equal, necessarily fixed 
in the mind before those which have no such immediate 
bearing, is abundantly illustrated in the history of Science. 
The habits of existing uncivilized races, who fix times by 
moons and barter so many of one article for so many of 
another, show us that numeration, which is the germ of 
mathematical science, commenced under the immediate press- 
ure of personal wants ; and it can scarcely be doubted that 
those laws of numerical relations which are embodied in the 
rules of arithmetic, were first brought to light through the 
practice of mercantile exchange. Similarly with Geometry. 
The derivation shows us that it originally included only certain 
methods of partitioning ground and laying out buildings. 
The properties of the scales and the lever, involving the first 
principle in mechanics, were early generalized under the 
stimulus of commercial and architectural needs. To fix the 
times of religious festivals and agricultural operations, were 
the motives which led to the establishment of the simpler 
astronomic periods. Such small knowledge of chemical re- 
lations as was involved in ancient metallurgy, was manifestly 
obtained in seeking how to improve tools and weapons. In 
the alchemy of later times, we see how greatly an intense hope 
of private benefit contributed to the disclosure of a certain 
class of uniformities. Nor is our own age barren of illustra- 
tions. " Here," says Humboldt when in Guiana, " as in 
many parts of Europe, the sciences are thought worthy to 
occupy the mind, only so far as they confer some immediate 
and practical benefit on society." " How is it possible to be- 
lieve," said a missionary to him, "that you have left your 
country to come and be devoured by mosquitoes on this 
river, and to measure lands that are not your own." Our 
coasts furnish like instances. Every sea-side naturalist knows- 
how great is the contempt with which fishermen regard the 
collection of objects for the microscope or aquarium: their 
incredulity as to the possible value of such things, being so 



LAWS IN GENERAL. 135 

great, that they can scarcely be induced even^by bribes to 
preserve the refuse of their nets. Nay, we need not go for 
evidence beyond daily table-talk. The demand for " practical 
science " — for a knowledge that can be brought to bear on 
the business of life ; joined to the ridicule commonly vented 
on pursuits that have no obvious use ; suffice to show that the 
order in which different coexistences and sequences are dis- 
covered, greatly depends on the directness with which they 
affect our welfare. 

That, when all other conditions are the same, obtrusive 
relations will be generalized before unobtrusive ones, is so 
nearly a truism that examples appear almost superfluous. If 
it be admitted that by the aboriginal man, as by the child, 
the coexistent properties of large surrounding objects are 
noticed before those of minute objects ; and that the external 
relations which bodies present are generalized before their in- 
ternal ones ; it must be admitted that in all subsequent stages 
of progress, the comparative conspicuousness of relations has 
greatly affected the order in which they were recognized as 
uniform. Hence it happened that after the establishment of 
those very manifest sequences constituting a lunation, and those 
less manifest ones marking a year, and those still less manifest 
ones marking the planetary periods, Astronomy occupied it- 
self with such inconspicuous sequences as those displayed in 
the repeating cycle of lunar eclipses, and those which sug- 
gested the theory of epicycles and eccentrics ; while modern 
Astronomy deals with still more inconspicuous sequences : some 
of which, as the planetary rotations, are nevertheless the 
simplest which the heavens present. In Physics, the early 
use of canoes implied an empirical knowledge of certain 
hydrostatic relations that are intrinsically more complex than 
sundry static relations then unknown ; but these hydrostatic 
relations were thrust upon observation. Or if we compare 
the solution of the problem of specific gravity by Archimedes, 
with the discovery of atmospheric pressure by Torricelli, (the 
two involving mechanical relations of exactly the same kind,) 



136 LAWS IN GENERAL. 

we perceive that the much earlier occurrence of the first than the 
last, was determined neither by a difference in their bearings 
on personal welfare, nor by a difference in the frequency with 
which illustrations of them come under observation, nor by 
relative simplicity ; but solely by the greater obtrusiveness of 
the connexion between antecedent and consequent in the one 
case than in the other. Similarly with Chemistry. The 
burning of wood, the rusting of iron, the putrefaction of dead 
bodies, were early known as consequents uniformly related to 
certain antecedents ; but not until long after was there reached 
a like empirical knowledge of the effect produced by air in 
the decomposition of soil : a phenomenon of equal simplicity, 
equal or greater importance, and greater frequency ; but one 
that is extremely unobtrusive. Among miscellaneous illustra- 
tions, it may be pointed out that the connexions between light- 
ning and thunder and between rain and clouds, were established 
long before others of the same order ; simply because they 
thrust themselves on the attention. Or the long- delayed dis- 
covery of the microscopic forms of life, with all the phenomena 
they present, may be named as very clearly showing how 
certain groups of relations that are not ordinarily perceptible, 
though in all other respects like long-familiar relations, have 
to wait until changed conditions render them perceptible. 
But, without further details, it needs only to consider the in- 
quiries which now occupy the electrician, the chemist, the 
physiologist, to see that Science has advanced and is ad- 
vancing from the more conspicuous phenomena to the less 
conspicuous ones. 

How the degree of absolute frequency of a relation affects 
the recognition of its uniformity, we see in contrasting certain 
biological facts. Death and disease are near akin in most 
of their relations to us; while in respect of complexity, 
conspicuousness, and the directness with which they person- 
ally concern us, diseases in general may be put pretty nearly 
on a level with each other. But there are great differences in 
the times at which the natural sequences they severally exhibit 






LAWS IN GENERAL. 137 

are recognized as such. The connexion between death and 
bodily injury, constantly displayed not only in men but in 
all inferior creatures, was known as an established uniformity 
while yet diseases were thought supernatural. Among dis- 
eases themselves, it is observable that comparatively unusual 
ones were regarded as of demoniacal origin during ages 
when the more frequent were ascribed to ordinary causes : 
a truth paralleled indeed among our own peasantry, who by the 
use of charms show a lingering superstition with respect to 
rare disorders, which they do not show with respect to com- 
mon ones, such as colds. Passing to physical illustrations, we 
may note that within the historic period, whirlpools were ac- 
counted for by the agency of water-spirits ; but we do not find 
that within the same period the disappearance of water on ex- 
posure either to the sun or to artificial heat was interpreted in 
an analogous way: though a much more marvellous oc- 
currence, and a much more complex one, its great frequency 
led to the early establishment of it as a natural uniformity. 
Rainbows and comets do not differ greatly in conspicuousness, 
and a rainbow is intrinsically the more involved phenomenon ; 
but chiefly because of their far greater commonness, rainbows 
were perceived to have a direct dependence on sun and rain 
while yet comets were regarded as supernatural appear- 
ances. 

That races living inland must long have remained ignorant 
of the daily and monthly sequences of the tides, and that in- 
tertropical races could not early have comprehended the phe- 
nomena of northern winters, are extreme illustrations of the 
influence which relative frequency has on the recognition of 
uniformities. Animals which, where they are indigenous, call 
forth no surprise by their structure or habits, because these 
are so familiar, when taken to a part of the earth where they 
have never been seen, are looked at with an astonishment ap- 
proaching to awe — are even thought supernatural : a fact 
which will suggest numerous others that show how the local- 
ization of phenomena, in part controls the order in which they 



138 LAWS IN GENERAL. 

are reduced to law. Not only however does their localization 
in space affect the progression, but also their localization 
in time. Facts which are rarely if ever manifested during 
one era, are rendered very frequent in another, simply through 
the changes wrought by civilization. The lever, of which the 
properties are illustrated in the use of sticks and weapons, is 
vaguely understood by every savage — on applying it in a 
certain way he rightly anticipates certain effects ; but the ac- 
tion of the equally simple wedge, which is not commonly dis- 
played till tool-making has made some progress, is less early 
generalized ; while the wheel and axle, pulley, and screw, 
cannot have their powers either empirically or rationally 
known till the advance of the arts has more or less familiarized 
them. Through those various means of exploration which we 
have inherited and are ever increasing, we have become ac- 
quainted with a vast range of chemical relations that were re- 
latively non-existent to the primitive man : to highly developed 
industries we owe both the substances and the apparatus that 
have disclosed to us countless uniformities which our ancestors 
had no opportunity of seeing, and therefore could not recog- 
nize. These and sundry like instances that will occur to the 
reader, show that the accumulated materials, and processes, and 
appliances, and products, which characterize the environments 
of complex societies, greatly increase the accessibility of vari- 
ous classes of relations ; and by so multiplying the experiences 
of them, or making them relatively frequent, facilitate their 
generalization. To which add, that various classes of pheno- 
mena presented by society itself, as for instance those which 
political economy formulates, become relatively frequent and 
therefore recognizable in advanced social states; while in 
less advanced ones they are too rarely displayed to have their 
relations perceived, or, as in the least advanced ones, are not 
displayed at all. 

That, where no other circumstances interfere, the order in 
which different uniformities are established varies as their com- 
plexity, is manifest. The geometry of straight lines was under- 



LAWS IN GENERAL. 139 

stood before the geometry of curved lines ; the properties of 
the circle before the properties of the ellipse, parabola and hy- 
perbola ; and the equations of curves of single curvature were 
ascertained before those of curves of double curvature. Plane 
trigonometry comes in order of time and simplicity before 
spherical trigonometry ; and the mensuration of plane surfaces 
and solids before the mensuration of curved surfaces and solids. 
Similarly with mechanics: the laws of simple motion were 
generalized before those of compound motion ; and those of 
rectilinear motion before those of curvilinear motion. The 
properties of equal-armed levers, or scales, were understood be- 
fore those of the lever with unequal arms ; and the law of the 
inclined plane was formulated earlier than that of the screw, 
which involves it. In chemistry, the progress has been from 
the simple inorganic compounds, to the more involved organic 
ones. And where, as in most of the other sciences, the condi- 
tions of the exploration are more complicated, we still may 
clearly trace relative complexity as one of the determining 
circumstances. 

The progression from concrete relations to abstract ones, 
and from the less abstract to the more abstract, is equally 
obvious. Numeration, which in it* primary form concerned 
itself only with groups of actual objects, came earlier than 
simple arithmetic : the rules of which deal with numbers 
apart from objects. Arithmetic, limited in its sphere to 
concrete numerical relations, is alike earlier and less abstract 
than Algebra, which deals with the relations of these relations. 
And in like manner, the Infinitesimal Calculus comes after 
Algebra, both in order of evolution and in order of abstract- 
ness. In Astronomy, the progress has been from special 
generalizations, each expressing the motions of a particular 
planet, to the generalizations of Kepler, expressing the motions 
of the planets at large ; and then to Newton's generalization, 
expressing the motions of all heavenly bodies whatever. 
Similarly with Physics, Chemistry and Biology, there has 
ever been an advance from the relations of particular facts 



140 LAWS IN GENERAL. 

and particular classes of facts, to the relations presented by 
still wider classes — to truths of a high generality or greater 
abstractness. 

Brief and rude as is this sketch of a mental development 
that has been long and complicated, it fulfils its end if it dis- 
plays the several conditions that have regulated the course 
of the development. I venture to think it shows inductively, 
what was deductively inferred, that the order in which separate 
groups of uniformities are recognized, depends not on one 
circumstance but on several circumstances. A survey of the 
facts makes it manifest that the various classes of relations 
are generalized in a certain succession, not solely because of 
one particular kind of difference in their natures; but also 
because they are variously placed with respect to time, space, 
other relations, and our own constitutions : our perception of 
them being influenced by all these conditions in endless com- 
binations. The comparative degrees of importance, of ob- 
trusiveness, of absolute frequency, of relative frequency, of 
simplicity, of concreteness, are every one of them factors ; and 
from their union in proportions that are more or less different 
in every case, there results a highly complex process of mental 
evolution. But while it thus becomes manifest that the 
proximate causes of the succession in which relations are 
reduced to law, are numerous and involved ; it also becomes 
manifest that there is one ultimate cause to which these prox- 
imate ones are subordinate. As the several circumstances 
that determine the early or late recognition of uniformities, 
are circumstances that determine the number and strength of 
the impressions which these uniformities make on the mind ; 
it follows that the progression conforms to a certain funda- 
mental principle of psychology. We see d posteriori, what 
we concluded a priori, that the order in which relations are 
generalized, depends on the frequency and impressiveness with 
which they are repeated in conscious experience. 

§ 39. And now to observe the bearings of these truths on 






LAWS IN GENERAL 141 

our general argument. Having roughly analyzed the pro- 
gress of the past, let us take advantage of the light thus 
thrown on the present, and consider what is implied respect- 
ing the future. 

Note first that the likelihood of the universality of Law, has 
been ever growing greater. Out of the countless coexistences 
and sequences with which mankind are environed, they have 
been continually transferring some from the group whose order 
was supposed to be arbitrary, to the group whose order is 
known to be uniform. Age by age, the number of recognized 
connexions of phenomena has been increasing ; and that of 
unrecognized connexions decreasing. And manifestly, as fast as 
the class of ungeneralized relations becomes smaller, the proba- 
bility that among them there may be some that do not conform 
to law, becomes less. To put the argument numerically — It is 
clear that when out of surrounding phenomena a hundred of 
several kinds have been found to occur in constant con- 
nexions, there arises a slight presumption that all phenomena 
occur in constant connexions. When uniformity has been 
established in a thousand cases, more varied in their kinds, 
the presumption gains strength. And when the established 
cases of uniformity mount to myriads, including many of each 
variety, it becomes an ordinary induction that uniformity 
exists everywhere. Just as from the numerous observed cases 
in which heavenly bodies have been found to move in har- 
mony with the law of gravitation, it is inferred that all 
heavenly bodies move in harmony with the law of gravita- 
tion ; so, from the innumerable observed cases in which 
phenomena are found to stand in invariable connexions, it is 
inferred that in all cases phenomena stand in invariable con- 
nexions. 

Silently and insensibly their experiences have been pressing 
men on towards the conclusion thus drawn. Not out of a 
conscious regard for these abstract reasons, but from a habit 
of thought which these abstract reasons formulate and justify, 
all minds have been advancing towards a belief in the con- 






142 LAWS IN GENERAL. 

stancy of surrounding coexistences and sequences. Familiarity 
with, special uniformities, has generated the abstract concep- 
tion of uniformity — the idea of Law ; and this idea has been in 
successive generations slowly gaining fixity and clearness. 
Especially has it been thus among those whose knowledge of 
natural phenomena is the most extensive — men of science. 
The Mathematician, the Physicist, the Astronomer, the Che- 
mist, severally acquainted with the vast accumulations of uni- 
formities established by their predecessors, and themselves daily 
adding new ones as well as verifying the old, acquire a far 
stronger faith in Law than is ordinarily possessed. With them 
this faith, ceasing to be merely passive, becomes an active 
stimulus to inquiry. Wherever there exist phenomena of 
which the dependence is not yet ascertained, these most culti- 
vated intellects, impelled by the conviction that here too there 
is some invariable connexion, proceed to observe, compare, and 
experiment; and when they discover the law to which the 
phenomena conform, as they eventually do, their general be- 
lief in the universality of law is further strengthened. So over- 
whelming is the evidence, and such the effect of this dis- 
cipline, that to the advanced student of nature, the proposition 
that there are lawless phenomena, has become not only incred- 
ible but almost inconceivable. 

Hence we may see how inevitably there must spread among 
mankind at large, this habitual recognition of law which al- 
ready distinguishes modern thought from ancient thought. Not 
only is it that each conquest of generalization over a region of 
fact hitherto ungeneralized, and each merging of lower gener- 
alizations in a higher one, adds to the distinctness of this re- 
cognition among those immediately concerned — not only is it 
that the fulfilment of the predictions made possible by every new 
step, and the further command so gained of nature's forces, 
prove to the uninitiated the validity of these generalization! 
and the doctrine they illustrate ; but it is that widening edu • 
cation is daily diffusing among the mass of men, that know- 
ledge of generalizations which has been hitherto confined to 



LAWS IN GENERAL. 



143 



the few. And as fast as this diffusion goes on, must the belief 
of the scientific become the belief of the world at large. The 
simple accumulation of instances, must inevitably establish in 
the general mind, a conviction of the universality of law; 
even were the influence of this accumulation to be aided 
by no other. 

§ 40. But it will be aided by another. From the evidence 
above set forth, it may be inferred that a secondary influence 
will by and by enforce this primary one. That law is universal, 
will become an irresistible conclusion when it is perceived that 
the progress in the discovert/ of laws itself conforms to law; 
and when it is hence understood why certain groups of pheno- 
mena have been reduced to law, while other groups are still 
unreduced. When it is seen that the order in which uni- 
formities are recognized, must depend upon the frequency and 
vividness with which they are repeated in conscious expe- 
rience ; when it is seen that, as a matter of fact, the most 
common, important, conspicuous, concrete and simple uniformi- 
ties were the earliest recognized, because they were experi- 
enced oftenest and most distinctly ; when it is further seen that 
from the beginning the advance has been to the recognition of 
uniformities which, from one or other circumstance, were less 
often experienced ; it will by implication be seen that long 
after the great mass of phenomena have been generalized, 
there must remain phenomena which, from their rareness, or 
unobtrusiveness, or seeming unimportance, or complexity, or 
abstractness, are still ungeneralized. Thus will be 

furnished a solution to a difficulty sometimes raised. When it 
is ashed why the universality of law is not already fully estab- 
lished, there will be the answer that the directions in which 
it is not yet established are those in which its establishment 
must necessarily be latest. t That state of things which is 
inferable beforehand, is just the state which we find to exist. 
If such coexistences and sequences as those of Biology and 
Sociology are not yet reduced to law, the presumption is not 




144 LAWS IN GENERAL. 

that they are irreducible to law, but that their laws elude our 
present means of analysis. Having long ago proved uniform- 
ity throughout all the lower classes of relations ; and having 
been step by step proving uniformity throughout classes of 
relations successively higher and higher ; if we have not at 
present succeeded with the highest classes, it may be fairly con- 
cluded that our powers are at fault, rather than that the uni- 
formity does not exist. And unless we make the absurd as- 
sumption that the process of generalization, now going on with 
unexampled rapidity, has reached its limit, and will suddenly 
cease, we must infer that ultimately mankind will discover a 
constant order of manifestation even in the most involved, 
obscure, and abstract phenomena. 

§ 41. Not even yet, however, have we exhausted the evidence. 
The foregoing arguments have to be merged in another, still 
more cogent, which fuses all fragmentary proofs into one 
general proof. 

Thus far we have spoken of laws that are more or less spe- 
cial ; and from the still-continuing disclosure of special laws, 
each formulating some new class of phenomena, have inferred 
that eventually all classes of phenomena will be formulated. 
If, now, we find that there are laws of far higher gener- 
ality, to which those constituting the body of Science are 
subordinate ; the fact must greatly strengthen the proof that 
Law is universal. If, underneath different groups of concrete 
phenomena, Mechanical, Chemical, Thermal, Electric, &c, we 
discern certain uniformities of action common to them all ; we 
have a new and weighty reason for believing that uniformity 
of action pervades the whole of nature. And if we also see that 
these most general laws hold not only of the inorganic but of 
the organic worlds — if we see that the phenomena of Life, of 
Mind, of Society, whose special laws are yet unestablished, 
nevertheless conform to these most general laws ; the proof 
of the universality of Law amounts to demonstration. 

That there are laws of this transcendant generality, has now 






LAWS IN GENERAL. 



145 



to be shown. To specify and illustrate them, will be the pur- 
pose of the succeeding chapters. And while, in contemplating 
them, we shall perceive how irresistible is the conclusion that 
the workings of the Unknowable are distinguished from those 
of finite agents by their absolute uniformity ; we shall at the 
same time familiarize ourselves with those primary facts 
through which all other facts are to be interpreted. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE LAW OF EVOLUTION.* 

§ 42. The class of phenomena to be considered under the 
title of Evolution, is in a great* measure coextensive with the 
class commonly indicated by the word Progress. But the word 
Progress is here inappropriate, for several reasons. To spe- 
cify these reasons will perhaps be the best way of showing 
what is to be understood by Evolution. 

In the first place, the current conception of Progress is 
shifting and indefinite. Sometimes it comprehends little more 
than simple growth — as of a nation in the number o*f its 
members and the extent of territory over which it has spread. 
At other times it has reference to quantity of material pro- 
ducts — as when the advance of agriculture and manufactures 
is the topic. Now the superior quality of these products is 
contemplated ; and then the new or improved appliances by 
which they are produced. When, again, we speak of moral 
or intellectual progress, we refer to the state of the individual 
or people exhibiting it ; while, when the progress of Know- 
ledge, of Science, of Art, is commented upon, we have in view 
certain abstract results of human thought and action. In 

the second place, besides being more or less vague, the 

* The substance of this chapter is nearly identical with the first half of an 
essay on " Progress : its Law and Cause," which was originally published in the 
Westminster Review for April 1857 : only a few unimportant additions and al- 
terations have been made. The succeeding chapter, however, in which the sub- 
ject is continued, is, with the exception of a fragment embodied in it, wholly new. 



* 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 147 

ordinary idea of Progress is in great measure 'erroneous. It 
takes in not so much the reality as its accompaniments — not 
so much the substance as the shadow. That progress in in- 
telligence seen during the growth of the child into the man, 
or the savage into the philosopher, is commonly regarded as 
consisting in the greater number of facts known and laws 
understood ; whereas the actual progress consists in those 
internal modifications of which this increased knowledge is 
the expression. Social progress is supposed to consist in the 
produce of a greater quantity and variety of the articles 
Required for satisfying men's wants — in the increasing security 
of person a^pd property — in widening freedom of action ; 
whereas, rightly understood, social progress consists in those 
changes of structure in the social organism which have entailed 
these consequences. The interpretation is a teleological one. 
The phenomena are contemplated solely as bearing on human 
happiness. Only those changes are held to constitute pro- 
gress, which directly or indirectly tend to heighten human 
happiness. And they are thought to constitute progress sim- 
ply because they tend to heighten human happiness. In 
the third place, in consequence of its teleological implications, 
the term Progress is rendered scarcely applicable to a wide 
range of phenomena which are intrinsically of the same nature 
as those included under it. The metamorphoses of an insect 
are only by analogy admitted within the scope of the word, as 
popularly accepted; though, considered in themselves, they 
have as much right there as the changes which constitute 
civilization. Having no apparent bearing on human interests, 
an increasing complication in the arrangement of ocean- 
currents, would not ordinarily be regarded as progress ; though 
really of the same character as phenomena which are so 
regarded. 

Hence the need for another word. Our purpose here is to 
analyze the various class of changes usually considered as 
Progress, together with others like them which are not so 
considered; and to see what is their intrinsic peculiarity — what 



148 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 

is their essential nature apart from their bearings on our 
welfare. And that we may avoid the confusion of thought 
likely to result from pre-established associations, it will be 
best to substitute for the term Progress, the term Evolution. 
Our question is then — what is Evolution ? 

§ 43. In respect to that evolution which individual organ- 
isms display, this question has been answered. Pursuing an 
idea which Harvey set afloat, "Wolff, Goethe, and Yon Baer, 
have established the truth that the series of changes gone 
through during the development of a seed into a tree, or 
an ovum into an animal, constitute an advance from homo- 
geneity of structure to heterogeneity of structure. In its pri- 
mary stage, every germ consists of a substance that is uniform 
throughout, both in texture and chemical composition. The 
first step is the appearance of a difference between two parts 
of this substance ; or, as the phenomenon is called in physio- 
logical language, a differentiation. Each of these differentiated 
divisions presently begins itself to exhibit some contrast of 
parts ; and by and by these secondary differentiations become 
as definite as the original one. This process is continuously 
repeated — is simultaneously going on in all parts of the grow- 
ing embryo ; and by endless such differentiations there is 
finally produced that complex combination of tissues and 
organs, constituting the adult animal or plant. This is the 
history of all organisms whatever. It is settled beyond dis- 
pute that organic evolution consists in a change from the 
homogeneous to the heterogeneous. 

Now I propose in the first place to show, that this law of 
organic evolution is the law of all evolution. Whether it be 
in the development of the Earth, in the development of Life 
upon its surface, in the development of Society, of Govern- 
ment, of Manufactures, of Commerce, of Language, Literature, 
Science, Art, this same advance from the simple to the com- 
plex, through successive differentiations, holds uniformly. 
From the earliest traceable cosmical changes down to the 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 149 

latest results of civilization, we shall find that the transform- 
ation of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous, is that in 
which Evolution essentially consists. — ^ 

§ 44. With the view of showing that if the Nebular Hypo- 
thesis be true, the genesis of the solar system supplies one 
illustration of this law, let us assume that the matter of which 
the sun and planets consist was once in a diffused form ; and 
that from the gravitation of its atoms there resulted a gradual 
concentration. By the hypothesis, the solar system in its 
nascent state existed as an indefinitely extended and nearly 
homogeneous medium — a medium almost homogeneous in 
density, in temperature, and in other physical attributes. 
The first advance towards consolidation resulted in a differ- 
entiation between the occupied space which the nebulous mass 
still filled, and the unoccupied space which it previously filled. 
There simultaneously resulted a contrast in density and a con- 
trast in temperature, between the interior and the exterior of 
this mass. And at the same time there arose throughout it, 
rotatory movements, whose velocities varied according to their 
distances from its centre. These differentiations increased in 
number and degree until there was evolved the organized 
group of sun, planets, and satellites, which we now know — 
a group which presents numerous contrasts of structure and 
action among its members. There are the immense contrasts 
between the sun and the planets, in bulk and in weight ; as 
well as the subordinate contrasts between one planet and an- 
other, and between the planets and their satellites. There is 
the similarly marked contrast between the sun as almost sta- 
tionary, and the planets as moving round him with great 
velocity ; while there are the secondary contrasts between the 
velocities and periods of the several planets, • and between 
their simple revolutions and the double ones of their satellites, 
which have to move round their primaries while moving 
round the sun. There is the yet further strong contrast be- 
tween the sun and the planets in respect of temperature ; and 



150 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 

there is reason to suppose that the planets and satellites differ 
from each other in their proper heat, as well as in the heat 
they receive from the sun. "When we bear in mind that, in 
addition to these various contrasts, the planets and satellites 
also differ in respect to their distances from each other and 
their primary ; in respect to the inclinations of their orbits, 
the inclinations of their axes, their times of rotation on their 
axes, their specific gravities, and their physical constitutions ; 
we see what a high degree of heterogeneity the solar system 
exhibits, when compared with the almost complete homo- 
geneity of the nebulous mass out of which it is supposed to 
have originated. 

§ 45. Passing from this hypothetical illustration, which 
must be taken for what it is worth, without prejudice to the 
general argument, let us descend to a more certain order of 
evidence. 

It is now generally agreed among geologists that the Earth 
was at first a mass of molten matter ; and that it is still fluid 
and incandescent at the distance of a few miles beneath its 
surface. Originally, then, it was homogeneous in consistence, 
and, because of the circulation that takes place in heated fluids, 
must have been comparatively homogeneous in temperature ; 
and it must have been surrounded by an atmosphere consist- 
ing partly of the elements of air and water, and partly of 
those various other elements which assume a gaseous form at 
high temperatures. That slow cooling by radiation which is 
still going on at an inappreciable rate, and which, though 
originally far more rapid than now, necessarily required an 
immense time to produce any decided change, must ultimately 
have resulted in the solidification of the portion most able to 
part with its heat ; namely, the surface. In the thin crust 
thus formed, we have the first marked differentiation. A still 
further cooling, a consequent thickening of this crust, and an 
accompanying deposition of all solidifiable elements contained 
in the atmosphere, must finally MVe been followed by the 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 151 

condensation of the water previously existing as vapour. A 
second marked differentiation must thus have arisen ; and as 
the condensation must have taken place on the coolest parts 
of the surface — namely, about the poles — there must thus 
have resulted the first geographical distinction of parts. 

To these illustrations of growing heterogeneity, which, 
though deduced from the known laws of matter, may be re- 
garded as more or less hypothetical, Geology adds an extensive 
series that have been inductively established. Its investiga- 
tions show that the Earth has been continually becoming more 
heterogeneous through the multiplication of the strata which 
form its crust; further, that it has been becoming more 
heterogeneous in respect of the composition of these strata, 
the latter of which, being made from the detritus of the older 
ones, are many of them rendered highly complex by the mix- 
ture of materials they contain ; and that this heterogeneity 
has been vastly increased by the action of the Earth's still 
molten nucleus upon its envelope : whence have resulted not 
only a great variety of igneous rocks, but the tilting up of 
sedimentary strata at all angles, the formation of faults and 
metallic veins, the production of endless dislocations and irre- 
gularities. Yet again, geologists teach us that the^arth's 
surface has been growing more varied in elevation — that the 
most ancient mountain systems are the smallest, and the Andes 
and Himalayas the most modern ; while, in all probability, 
there have been corresponding changes in the bed of the ocean. 
As a consequence of these ceaseless differentiations, we now 
find that no considerable portion of the Earth's exposed sur- 
face, is like any other portion, either in contour, in geologic 
structure, or in chemical composition; and that in most 
parts it changes from mile to mile in all these characteristics. 
Moreover, it must not be forgotten that there has been 
simultaneously going on a gradual differentiation of climates. 
As fast as the Earth cooled and its crust solidified, there arose 
appreciable differences in temperature between those parts of 
its surface most exposed to the sun and those less exposed. 




152 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 

• 

Gradually, as the cooling progressed, these differences became 
more pronounced ; until there finally resulted the marked 
contrasts between regions of perpetual ice and snow, regions 
where winter and summer alternately reign for periods vary- 
ing according to the latitude, and regions where summer 
follows summer with scarcely an appreciable variation. At 
the same time, the successive elevations and subsidences of 
different portions of the Earth's crust, tending as they have 
done to the present irregular distribution of land and sea, 
have entailed various modifications of climate beyond those 
dependent on latitude ; while a yet further series of such 
modifications have -been produced by increasing differences of 
elevation in the land, which have in sundry places brought 
arctic, temperate, and tropical climates to within a few miles 
of each other. And the general result of these changes is, 
that not only has every extensive region its own meteorologic 
conditions, but that every locality in each region differs more 
or less from others in those conditions : as in its structure, 
its contour, its soil. 

Thus, between our existing Earth, the phenomena of whose 
varied crust neither geographers, geologists, mineralogists 
nor meteorologists have yet enumerated, and the molten globe 
out of which it was evolved, the contrast in heterogeneity is 
sufficiently striking. 

§ 46. "When from the Earth itself we turn to the plants 
and animals that have lived, or still live, upon its surface, we 
find ourselves in some difficulty from lack of facts. That 
every existing organism has been developed out of the simple 
into the complex, is indeed the first established truth of all ; 
and that every organism which has existed was similarly devel- 
oped, is an inference that no physiologist will hesitate to draw. 
But when we pass from individual forms of life to Life in 
general, and inquire whether the same law is seen in the 
ensemble of its manifestations, — whether modern plants and 
animals are of more heterogeneous structure than ancient ones, 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 153 

and whether the Earth's present Flora and Fauna are more 
heterogeneous than the Flora and Fauna of the past, — we find 
the evidence so fragmentary, that every conclusion is open to 
dispute. Two-thirds of the Earth's surface being covered 
by water ; a great part of the exposed land being inaccessible 
to, or untravelled by, the geologist ; the greater part of the 
remainder having been scarcely more than glanced at ; and 
even the most familiar portions, as England, having been so 
imperfectly explored, that a new series of strata has been 
added within these few years, — it is manifestly impossible for 
us to say with any certainty what creatures have, and what 
have not, existed at any particular period. Considering the 
perishable nature of many of the lower organic forms, the 
metamorphosis of many sedimentary strata, and the gaps that 
occur among the rest, we shall see further reason for distrust- 
ing our deductions. On the. one hand, the repeated discovery 
of vertebrate remains in strata previously supposed to contain 
none, — of reptiles where only fish were thought to exist, — of 
mammals where it was believed there were no creatures higher 
than reptiles ; renders it daily more manifest how small is the 
value of negative evidence. On the other hand, the worthless- 
ness of the assumption that we have discovered the earliest, 
or anything like the earliest, organic remains, is becoming 
equally clear. That the oldest known aqueous formations have 
been greatly changed by igneous action, and that still older 
ones have been totally transformed by it, is becoming undeni- 
able. And the fact that sedimentary strata earlier than any 
we know, have been melted up, being admitted, it must also 
be admitted that we cannot say how far back in time this 
destruction of sedimentary strata has been going on. Thus it 
is manifest that the title Palceozoic, as applied to the earliest 
known fossiliferous strata, involves a petitio principii ; and 
that, for aught we know to the contrary, only the last few 
chapters of the Earth's biological history may have come down 
to us. 

All inferences drawn from such scattered facts as we find* 
8* 



154 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 

must thus be extremely questionable. If, looking at the 
general aspect of evidence, a progressionist argues that the 
earliest known vertebrate remains are those of Fishes, which 
are the most homogeneous of the vertebrata ; that Reptiles, 
which are more heterogeneous, are later ; and that later still, 
and more heterogeneous still, are Mammals and Birds ; it may 
be replied that the Palaeozoic deposits, not being estuary de- 
posits, are not likely to contain the remains of terrestrial ver- 
tebrata, which may nevertheless have existed at that era. 
The same answer may be made to the argument that the 
vertebrate fauna of the Palaeozoic period, consisting so far as 
we know, entirely of Fishes, was less heterogeneous than the 
modern vertebrate fauna, which includes Reptiles, Birds and 
Mammals, of multitudinous genera ; or the uniformitarian 
may contend with great show of truth, that this appearance 
of higher and more varied forms in later geologic eras, was 
due to progressive immigration — that a continent slowly 
upheaved from the ocean at a point remote from pre-existing 
continents, would necessarily be peopled from them in a suc- 
cession like that which our strata display. At the 
same time the counter- arguments may be proved equally in- 
conclusive. When, to show that there cannot have been a con- 
tinuous evolution of the more homogeneous organic forms 
into the more heterogeneous ones, the. uniformitarian points 
to the breaks that occur in the succession of these forms ; there 
is the sufficient answer that current geological changes show 
us why such breaks must occur, and why, by subsidences and 
elevations of large area, there must be produced such marked 
breaks as those which divide the three great geologic epochs. 
Or again, if the opponent of the development hypothesis cites 
the facts set forth by Professor Huxley in his lecture on 
" Persistent Types " — if he points out that " of some two 
hundred known orders of plants, not one is exclusively fossil," 
while " among animals, there is not a single totally extinct 
class ; and of the orders, at the outside not more than seven 
per cent, are unrepresented in the existing creation " — if he 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 155 

urges that among these some have continued from the 
Silurian epoch to our own day with scarcely any change — 
and if he infers that there is evidently a much greater average 
resemblance between the living forms of the past and those of 
the present, than consists with this hypothesis ; there is still 
a satisfactory reply, on which in fact Prof. Huxley insists ; 
namely, that we have evidence of a " pre-geologic era " of 
unknown duration. And indeed, when it is remembered, 
that the enormous subsidences of the Silurian period show 
the Earth's crust to have been approximately as thick then as 
it is now — when it is concluded that the time taken to form 
so thick a crust, must have been immense as compared with 
the time which has since elapsed — when it is assumed, as it 
must be, that during this comparatively immense time the 
geologic and biologic changes went on at their usual rates ; 
it becomes manifest, not only that the palseontological 
records which we find, do not negative the theory of 
evolution, but that they are such as might rationally be 
looked for. 

Moreover, it must not be forgotten that though the evidence 
suffices neither for proof nor disproof, yet some of its most 
conspicuous facts support the belief, that the more heteroge- 
neous organisms and groups of organisms, have been evolved 
from the less heterogeneous ones. The average community 
of type between the fossils of adjacent strata, and still more 
the community that is found between the latest tertiary 
fossils and creatures now existing, is one of these facts. The 
discovery in some modern deposits of such forms as the 
PalaBotherium and Anaplotherium, which, if we may rely on 
Prof. Owen, had a type of structure intermediate between 
some of the types now existing, is another of these facts. And 
the comparatively recent appearance of Man, is a third fact of 
this kind, which possesses still greater significance. Hence 
we may say, that though our knowledge of past life upon the 
Earth, is too scanty to justify us in asserting an evolution of 
the simple into the complex, either in individual forms or in 



156 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 

the aggregate of forms ; yet the knowledge we have, not only 
consists with the belief that there has been such an evolution, 
but rather supports it than otherwise. 

§ 47. Whether an advance from the homogeneous to the 
heterogeneous is or is not displayed in the biological history 
of the globe, it is clearly enough displayed in the progress of 
the latest and most heterogeneous creature — Man. It is alike 
true that, during the period in which the Earth has been 
peopled, the human organism has grown more heterogeneous 
among the civilized divisions of the species ; and that the 
species, as a whole, has been made more heterogeneous by 
the multiplication of races and the differentiation of these 
races from each other. In proof of the first of these 

positions, we may cite the fact that, in the relative develop- 
ment of the limbs, the civilized man departs more widely 
from the general type of the placental mammalia, than do the 
lower human races. Though often possessing well-developed 
body and arms, the Papuan has extremely small legs : thus 
reminding us of the quadrumana, in which there is no great 
contrast in size between the hind and fore limbs. But in the 
European, the greater length and massiveness of the legs has 
become very marked — the fore and hind limbs are relatively 
more heterogeneous. Again, the greater ratio which the 
cranial bones bear to the facial bones, illustrates the same 
truth. Among the vertebrata in general, evolution is marked 
by an increasing heterogeneity in the vertebral column, and 
more especially in the segments constituting the skull : the 
higher forms being distinguished by the relatively larger size 
of the bones which cover the brain, and the relatively smaller 
size of those which form the jaws, &c. Now, this character- 
istic, which is stronger in Man than in any other creature, is 
stronger in the European than in the savage. Moreover, 
judging from the greater extent and variety of faculty he ex- 
hibits, we may infer that the civilized man has also a more 
complex or heterogeneous nervous system than the uncivil- 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 157 

ized man ; and indeed the fact is in part visible in the in- 
creased ratio which his cerebrum bears to the subjacent 
ganglia. If further elucidation be needed, we may find it in 
every nursery. The infant European has sundry marked 
points of resemblance to the lower human races ; as in the 
flatness of the alae of the nose, the depression of its bridge, the 
divergence and forward opening of the nostrils, the form of 
the lips, the absence of a frontal sinus, the width between the 
eyes, the smallness of the legs. Now, as the developmental 
process by which these traits are turned into those of the 
adult European, is a continuation of that change from the 
homogeneous to the heterogeneous displayed during the pre- 
vious evolution of the embryo, which every physiologist will 
admit ; it follows that the parallel developmental process by 
which the like traits of the barbarous races have been turned 
into those of the civilized races, has also been a continuation 
of the change from the homogeneous to the heterogene- 
ous. The truth of the second position — that Mankind, 
as a whole, have become more heterogeneous — is so obvious as 
scarcely to need illustration. Every work on Ethnology, by 
its divisions and subdivisions of races, bears testimony to it. 
Even were we to admit the hypothesis that Mankind origin- 
ated from several separate stocks, it would still remain true 
that as, from each of these stocks, there have sprung many 
now widely different tribes, which are proved by philological 
evidence to have had a common origin, the race as a whole 
is far less homogeneous than it once was. Add to which, 
that we have, in the Anglo-Americans, an example of a new 
variety arising within these few generations ; and that, if we 
may trust to the descriptions of observers, we are likely soon 
to have another such example in Australia. 

§ 48. On passing from Humanity under its individual form, 
to Humanity as socially embodied, we find the general law still 
more variously exemplified. The change from the homo- 
geneous to the heterogeneous, is displayed equally in the 



158 THE LAV/ OF EVOLUTION. 

progress of civilization as a whole, and in the progress of 
every tribe or nation ; and is still going on with increasing 
rapidity. 

As we see in existing barbarous tribes, society in its first 
and lowest form is a homogeneous aggregation of individuals 
having like powers and like functions : the only marked dif- 
ference of function being that which accompanies difference 
of sex. Every man is warrior, hunter, fisherman, tool-maker, 
builder ; every woman performs the same drudgeries ; every 
family is self-sufficing, and, save for purposes of aggression 
and defence, might as well live apart from the rest. Yery 
early, however, in the process of social evolution, we find an 
incipient differentiation between the governing and the go- 
verned. Some kind of chieftainship seems coeval with the 
first advance from the state of separate wandering families to 
that of a nomadic tribe. The authority of the strongest 
makes itself felt among a body of savages, as in a herd of ani- 
mals, or a posse of schoolboys. At first, however, it is indefi- 
nite, uncertain ; is shared by others of scarcely inferior power ; 
and is unaccompanied by any difference in occupation or style 
of living : the first ruler kills his own game, makes his own 
weapons, builds his own hut, and, economically considered, 
does not differ from others of his tribe. Gradually, as the 
tribe progresses, the contrast between the governing and the 
governed grows more decided. Supreme power becomes here- 
ditary in one family ; the head of that family, ceasing to pro- 
vide for his own wants, is served by others ; and he begins to 
assume the sole office of ruling. At the same time 

there has been arising a co-ordinate species of government 
— that of Religion. As all ancient records and traditions 
prove, the earliest rulers are regarded as divine personages. 
The maxims and commands they uttered during their lives 
are held sacred after their deaths, and are enforced by their 
divinely-descended successors ; who in their turns are pro- 
moted to the pantheon of the race, there to be worshipped 
and propitiated along with their predecessors : the most an- 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 159 

cient of whom is the supreme god, and the rest subordinate 
gods. For a long time these connate forms of government — 
civil and religious — continue closely associated. For many 
generations the king continues to be the chief priest, and the 
priesthood to be members of the royal race. For many ages 
religious law continues to contain more or less of civil regula- 
tion, and civil law to possess more or less of religious sanc- 
tion ; and even among the most advanced nations these two 
controlling agencies are by no means completely differentiated 
from each other. Having a common root with these, 

and gradually diverging from them, we find yet another con- 
trolling agency — that of Manners or ceremonial usages. All 
titles of honour are originally the names of the god-king ; 
afterwards of God and the king ; still later of persons of high 
rank ; and finally come, some of them, to be used between 
man and man. All forms of complimentary address were at 
first the expressions of submission from prisoners to their 
conqueror, or from subjects to their ruler, either human or 
divine — expressions that were afterwards used to propitiate 
subordinate authorities, and slowly descended into ordinary 
intercourse. All modes of salutation were once obeisances 
made before the monarch and used in worship of him after 
his death. Presently others of the god-descended race were 
similarly saluted; and by degrees some of the salutations 
have become the due of all.* Thus, no sooner does the origin- 
ally homogeneous social mass differentiate into the governed 
and the governing parts, than this last exhibits an incipient 
differentiation into religious and secular — Church and State ; 
while at the same time there begins to be differentiated from 
both, that less definite species of government which rules 
our daily intercourse — a species of government which, as we 
may see in heralds' colleges, in books of the peerage, in masters 
of ceremonies, is not without a certain embodiment of its 
own. Each of these kinds of government is itself sub- 

ject to successive differentiations. In the course of ages, there 
* For detailed proof of these assertions see essay on Manners and Fashion. 



160 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 

arises, as among ourselves, a highly complex political organ 
ization of monarch, ministers, lords and commons, with their 
subordinate administrative departments, courts of justice, 
revenue offices, &c, supplemented in the provinces by muni- 
cipal governments, county governments, parish or union 
governments — all of them more or less elaborated. By its 
side there grows up a highly complex religious organization, 
with its various grades of officials from archbishops down to 
sextons, its colleges, convocations, ecclesiastical courts, &c. ; 
to all which must be added the ever-multiplying independent 
sects, each with its general and local authorities. And at the 
same time there is developed a highly complex aggregation 
of customs, manners, and temporary fashions, enforced by 
society at large, and serving to control those minor trans- 
actions between man and man which are not regulated by 
civil and religious law. Moreover, it is to be observed that 
this ever-increasing heterogeneity in the governmental ap- 
pliances of each nation, has been accompanied by an increas- 
ing heterogeneity in the governmental appliances of different 
nations : all of which are more or less unlike in their political 
systems and legislation, in their creeds and religious institu- 
tions, in their customs and ceremonial usages. 

Simultaneously there has been going on a second differen- 
tiation of a more familiar kind ; that, namely, by which the 
mass of the community has been segregated into distinct 
classes and orders of workers. While the governing part has 
undergone the complex development above detailed, the go- 
verned part has undergone an equally complex development ; 
which has resulted in that minute division of labour charac- 
terizing advanced nations. It is needless to trace 
out this progress from its first stages, up through the caste 
divisions of the East and the incorporated guilds of Europe, 
to the elaborate producing and distributing organization ex- 
isting among ourselves. Political economists have long since 
indicated the evolution which, beginning with a tribe whose 
members severally perform the same actions, each for himself 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION". 161 

ends with a civilized community whose members severally 
perform different actions for each other ; and they have fur- 
ther pointed out the changes through which the solitary pro- 
ducer of any one commodity, is transformed into a combination 
of producers who, united under a master, take separate parts 
in the manufacture of such commodity. But there 

are yet other and higher phases of this advance from the 
homogeneous to the heterogeneous in the industrial organiz- 
ation of society. Long after considerable progress has been 
made in the division of labour among the different classes of 
workers, there is still little or no division of labour among the 
widely separated parts of the community : the nation continues 
comparatively homogeneous in the respect that in each district 
the same occupations are pursued. But when roads and other 
means of transit become numerous and good, the different 
districts begin to assume different functions, and to become 
mutually dependent. The calico-manufacture locates itself in 
this county, the woollen-manufacture in that ; silks are pro- 
duced here, lace there ; stockings in one place, shoes in an- 
other ; pottery, hardware, cutlery, come to have their special 
towns ; and ultimately every locality grows more or less dis- 
tinguished from the rest by the leading occupation carried on 
in it. Nay, more, this subdivision of functions shows itself 
not only among the different parts of the same nation, but 
among different nations. That exchange of commodities 
which free-trade promises so greatly to increase, will ulti- 
mately have the effect of specializing, in a greater or less 
degree, the industry of each people. So that begin- 

ning with a barbarous tribe, almost if not quite homogeneous 
in the functions of its members, the progress has been, and 
still is, towards an economic aggregation of the whole human 
race; growing ever more heterogeneous in respect of the 
separate functions assumed by separate nations, the separate 
functions assumed by the local sections of each nation, the 
separate functions assumed by the many kinds of makers 
and traders in each town, and the separate functions as- 



162 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 

sumed by the workers -united in producing each com- 
modity. 

§ 49. Not only is the law thus clearly exemplified in the 
evolution of the social organism, but it is exemplified with 
equal clearness in the evolution of all products of human 
thought and action; whether concrete or abstract, real or 
ideal. Let us take Language as our first illustration. 

The lowest form of language is the exclamation, by which 
an entire idea is vaguely conveyed through a single sound ; as 
among the lower animals. That human language ever con- 
sisted solely of exclamations, and so was strictly homogeneous 
in respect of its parts of speech, we have no evidence. But 
that language can be traced down to a form in which nouns 
and verbs are its only elements, is an established fact. In 
the gradual multiplication of parts of speech out of these 
primary ones — in the differentiation of verbs into active and 
passive, of nouns into abstract and concrete — in the rise of 
distinctions of mood, tense, person, of number and case — in 
the formation of auxiliary verbs, of adjectives, adverbs, pro- 
nouns, prepositions, articles — in the divergence of those orders, 
genera, species, and varieties of parts of speech by which 
civilized races express minute modifications of meaning — we 
see a change from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous. 
And it may be remarked, in passing, that it is more especi- 
ally in virtue of having carried this subdivision of functions 
to a greater extent and completeness, that the English 
language is superior to all others. Another aspect 

under which we may trace the development of language, is 
the differentiation of words of allied meanings. Philology 
early disclosed the truth that in all languages words 
may be grouped into families having a common ances- 
try. An aboriginal name, applied indiscriminately to each of 
an extensive and ill-defined class of things or actions, pre- 
sently undergoes modifications by which the chief divisions 
of the class are expressed. These several names springing 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 



163 



from the primitive root, themselves become the parents of 
other names still further modified. And by the aid of those 
systematic modes which presently arise, of making derivatives 
and forming compound terms expressing still smaller dis- 
tinctions, there is finally developed a tribe of words so 
heterogeneous in sound and meaning, that to the uninitiated 
it seems incredible they should have had a common origin. 
Meanwhile, from other roots there are being evolved other 
such tribes, until there results a language of some sixty 
thousand or more unlike words, signifying as many unlike 
objects, qualities, acts. Yet another way in which 

language in general advances from the homogeneous to the 
heterogeneous, is in the multiplication of languages. "Whe- 
ther, as Max Muller and Bunsen think, all languages have 
grown from one stock, or whether, as some philologists say, 
they have grown from two or more stocks, it is clear that 
since large families of languages, as the Indo-European, are 
of one parentage, they have become distinct through a pro- 
cess of continuous divergence. The same diffusion over the 
Earth's surface which has led to the differentiation of the 
race, has simultaneously led to a differentiation of their 
speech: a truth which we see further illustrated in each 
nation by the peculiarities of dialect found in separate dis- 
tricts. Thus the progress of Language conforms to the 
general law, alike in the evolution of languages, in the 
evolution of families of words, and in the evolution of parts 
of speech. 

On passing from spoken to written language, we come upon 
several classes of facts, all having similar implications. 
"Written language is connate with Painting and Sculpture ; 
and at first all three are appendages of Architecture, and 
have a direct connexion with the primary form of all Govern- 
ment — the theocratic. Merely noting by the way the fact 
that sundry wild races, as for example 'the Australians and 
the tribes of South Africa, are given to depicting personages 
and events upon the walls of caves, which are probably re- 



164 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 

garded as sacred places, let us pass to the case of the Egyp- 
tians. Among them, as also among the Assyrians, we find 
mural paintings used to decorate the temple of the god and 
the palace of the king (which were, indeed, originally identi- 
cal) ; and as such they were governmental appliances in the 
same sense that state-pageants and religious feasts were. 
Further, they were governmental appliances in virtue of 
representing the worship of the god, the triumphs of the 
god-king, the submission of his subjects, and the punishment 
of the rebellious. And yet again they were governmental, 
as being the products of an art reverenced by the people as a 
sacred mystery. From the habitual use of this 

pictorial representation, there naturally grew up the but 
slightly-modified practice of picture-writing — a practice 
which was found still extant among the Mexicans at the time 
they were discovered. By abbreviations analogous to those 
still going on in our own written and spoken language, the 
most familiar of these pictured figures were successively 
simplified ; and ultimately there grew up a system of symbols, 
most of which had but a distant resemblance to the things 
for which they stood. The inference that the hieroglyphics 
of the Egyptians were thus produced, is confirmed by the fact 
that the picture-writing of the Mexicans was found to have 
given birth' to a like family of ideographic forms ; and among 
them, as among the Egyptians, these had been partially 
differentiated into the kuriological or imitative, and the 
tropical or symbolic : which were, however, used together in 
the same record. In Egypt, written language underwent a 
further differentiation ; whence resulted the hieratic and the 
epistolographic or enchorial : both of which are derived from 
the original hieroglyphic. At the same time we find that 
for the expression of proper names, which could not be other- 
wise conveyed, phonetic symbols were employed ; and though 
it is alleged that the Egyptians never actually achieved com- 
plete alphabetic writing, yet it can scarcely be doubted that 
these phonetic symbols occasionally used in aid of their 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 165 

ideographic ones, were the germs out of which alphabetic 
writing grew. Once having become separate from hierogly- 
phics, alphabetic writing itself underwent numerous differ- 
entiations — multiplied alphabets were produced: between 
most of which, however, more or less connexion can still be 
traced. And in each civilized nation there has now grown 
up, for the representation of one set of sounds, several sets of 
written signs, used for distinct purposes. Finally, through a 
yet more important differentiation came printing ; which, uni- 
form in kind as it was at first, has since become multiform. 

§ 50. While written language was passing through its 
earlier stages of development, the mural decoration which 
formed its root was being differentiated into Painting and 
Sculpture. The gods, kings, men, and animals represented, 
were originally marked by indented outlines and coloured. 
In most cases these outlines were of such depth, and the 
object they circumscribed so far rounded and marked out in 
its leading parts, as to form a species of work intermediate 
between intaglio and bas-relief. In other cases we see an 
advance upon this : the raised spaces between the figures 
being chiselled off, and the figures themselves appropriately 
tinted, a painted bas-relief was produced. The restored 
Assyrian architecture at Sydenham, exhibits this style of art 
carried to greater perfection — the persons and things repre- 
sented, though still barbarously coloured, are carved out 
with more truth and in greater detail ; and in the winged 
lions and bulls used for the angles of gateways, we may see 
a considerable advance towards a completely sculptured 
figure ; which, nevertheless, is still coloured, and still forms 
part of the building. But while in Assyria the production 
of a statue proper, seems to have been little, if at all, at- 
tempted, we may trace in Egyptian art the gradual separation 
of the sculptured figure from the wall. A walk through the 
collection in the British Museum will clearly show this ; 
while it will at the same time afford an opportunity of ob 



166 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 

serving the evident traces which the independent statues bear 
of their derivation from bas-relief: seeing that nearly all of 
them not only display that union of the limbs with the body 
which is the characteristic of bas-relief, but have the back of 
the statue united from head to foot with a block which 
stands in place of the original wall. Greece repeat- 

ed the leading stages of this progress. As in Egypt and 
Assyria, these twin arts were at first united with each other 
and with their parent, Architecture ; and were the aids of 
Religion and Government. On the friezes of Greek temples, 
we see coloured bas-reliefs representing sacrifices, battles, 
processions, games — all in some sort religious. On the pedi- 
ments we see painted sculptures more or less united with the 
tympanum, and having for subjects the triumphs of gods or 
heroes. Even when we come to statues that are definitely 
separated from the buildings to which they pertain, we still 
find them coloured ; and only in the later periods of Greek 
civilization, does the differentiation of sculpture from paint- 
ing appear to have become complete. In Christian 
art we may clearly trace a parallel re- genesis. All early 
paintings and sculptures throughout Europe, were religious 
in subject — represented Christs, crucifixions, virgins, holy 
families, apostles, saints. They formed integral parts of 
church architecture, and were among the means of exciting 
worship : as in Roman Catholic countries they still are. 
Moreover, the early sculptures of Christ on the cross, of 
virgins, of saints, were coloured ; and it needs but to call to 
mind the painted madonnas and crucifixes still abundant in 
continental churches and highways, to perceive the significant 
fact that painting and sculpture continue in closest connexion 
with each other, where they continue in closest connexion 
with their parent. Even when Christian sculpture was 
pretty clearly differentiated from painting, it was still religious 
and governmental in its subjects — was used for tombs in 
churches and statues of kings ; while, at the same time, 
painting, where not purely ecclesiastical, was applied to the 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 167 

decoration of palaces, and besides representing royal person- 
ages, was almost wholly devoted to sacred legends. Only in 
quite recent times have painting and sculpture become 
entirely secular arts. Only within these few centuries has 
painting been divided into historical, landscape, marine, 
architectural, genre, animal, still-life, &c, and sculpture 
grown heterogeneous in respect of the variety of real and 
ideal subjects with which it occupies itself. 

Strange as it seems then, we find it no less true, that all 
forms of written language, of painting, and of sculpture, have 
a common root in the politico-religious decorations of ancient 
temples and palaces. Little resemblance as they now have, 
the bust that stands on the console, the landscape that hangs 
against the wall, and the copy of the Times lying upon the 
table, are remotely akin ; not only in nature, but by extraction. 
The brazen face of the knocker which the postman has just 
lifted, is related not only to the woodcuts of the Illustrated Lon- 
don News which he is delivering, but to the characters of the 
billet-doux which accompanies it. Between the painted window, 
the prayer-book on which its light falls, and the adjacent 
monument, there is consanguinity. The effigies on our coins, 
the signs over shops, the figures that fill every ledger, the coat 
of arms outside the carriage-panel, and the placards inside the 
omnibus, are, in common with dolls, blue-books and paper-hang- 
ings, lineally descended from the rude sculpt iire-paintings in 
which the Egyptians represented the triumphs and worship 
of their god-kings. Perhaps no example can be given which 
more vividly illustrates the multiplicity and heterogeneity 
of the products that in course of time may arise by successive 
differentiations from a common stock. 

Before passing to other classes of facts, it should be observ- 
ed that the evolution of the homogeneous into the hetero- 
geneous is displayed not only in the separation of Painting 
and Sculpture from Architecture and from each other, and in 
the greater variety of subjects they embody ; but it is further 
shown in the structure of each work. A modern picture or 



168 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 

statue is of far more heterogeneous nature than an ancient 
one. An Egyptian sculpture-fresco represents all its figures 
as on one plane — that is, at the same distance from the eye ; 
and so is less heterogeneous than a painting that represents 
them as at various distances from the eye. It exhibits all ob- 
jects as exposed to the same degree of light ; and so is less 
heterogeneous than a painting which exhibits different ob- 
jects, and different parts of each object, as in different degrees 
of light. It uses scarcely any but the primary colours, and 
these in their full intensity; and so is less heterogeneous than 
a painting which, introducing the primary colours but sparing- 
ly, employs an endless variety of intermediate tints, each of 
heterogeneous composition, and differing from the rest not 
only in quality but in intensity. Moreover, we see 

in these earliest works a great uniformity of conception. The 
same arrangement of figures is perpetually reproduced — the 
same actions, attitudes, faces, dresses. In Egypt the modes of 
representation were so fixed that it was sacrilege to introduce 
a novelty ; and indeed it could have been only in consequence 
of a fixed mode of representation that a system of hierogly- 
phics became possible. The Assyrian bas-reliefs display par- 
allel characters. Deities, kings, attendants, winged-figures 
and animals, are severally depicted in like positions, holding 
like implements, doing like things, and with like expression or 
non-expression of face. If a palm-grove is introduced, all the 
trees are of the same height, have the same number of leaves, 
and are equidistant. When water is imitated, each wave is 
a counterpart of the rest ; and the fish, almost always of one 
kind, are evenly distributed over the surface. The beards of 
the kings, the gods, and the winged-figures, are everywhere 
similar ; as are the manes of the lions, and equally so those of 
the horses. Hair is represented throughout by one form of 
curl. The king's beard is quite architecturally built up of com- 
pound tiers of uniform curls, alternating with twisted tiers 
placed in a transverse direction, and arranged with perfect 
regularity ; and the terminal tufts of the bulls' tails are re- 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 169 

presented in exactly the same manner. Without 

tracing out analogous facts in early Christian art, in which, 
though less striking, they are still visible, the advance in 
heterogeneity will be sufficiently manifest on remembering that 
in the pictures of our own day the composition is endlessly 
varied ; the attitudes, faces, expressions, unlike ; the subor- 
dinate objects different in size, form, position, texture ; and 
more or less of contrast even in the smallest details. Or, if 
we compare an Egyptian statue, seated bolt upright on a 
block, with hands on knees, fingers outspread and parallel, 
eyes looking straight forward, and the two sides perfectly sym- 
metrical in every particular, with a statue of the advanced 
Greek or the modern school, which is asymmetrical in respect 
of the position of the head, the body, the limbs, the arrange- 
ment of the hair, dress, appendages, and in its relations to 
neighbouring objects, we shall see the change from the homo- 
geneous to the heterogeneous clearly manifested. 

§ 51. In the co-ordinate origin and gradual differentiation 
of Poetry, Music, and Dancing, we have another series of illus- 
trations. Rhythm in speech, rhythm in sound, and rhythm 
in motion, were in the beginning, parts of the same thing ; 
and have only in process of time become separate things. 
Among various existing barbarous tribes we find them still 
united. The dances of savages are accompanied by some kind 
of monotonous chant, the clapping of hands, the striking of 
rude instruments : there are measured movements, measured 
words, and measured tones ; and the whole ceremony, usually 
having reference to war or sacrifice, is of governmental cha- 
racter. In the early records of the historic races we similarly 
find these three forms of metrical action united in religious 
festivals. In the Hebrew writings we read that the triumphal 
ode composed by Moses on the defeat of the Egyptians, was 
sung to an accompaniment of dancing and timbrels. The 
Israelites danced and sung " at the inauguration of the golden 
calf. And as it is generally agreed that this representation 
9 



170 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 

of the Deity was borrowed from the mysteries of Apis, it is 
probable that the dancing was copied from that of the Egyp- 
tians on those occasions." There was an annual dance in 
Shiloh on the sacred festival ; and David danced before the 
ark. Again, in Greece the like relation is everywhere seen : 
the original type being there, as probably in other cases, a 
simultaneous chanting and mimetic representation of the life 
and adventures of the god. The Spartan dances were ac- 
companied by hymns and songs ; and in general the Greeks* 
had " no festivals or religious assemblies but what were ac- 
companied with songs and dances" — both of- them being 
forms of worship used before altars. Among the Romans, 
too, there were sacred dances : the Salian and Lupercalian 
being named as of that kind. And even in Christian countries, 
as at Limoges in comparatively recent times, the people have 
danced in the choir in honour of a saint. The in- 

cipient separation of these once united arts from each other 
and from religion, was early visible in Greece. Probably 
diverging from dances partly religious, partly warlike, as the 
Corybantian, came the war- dances proper, of which there 
were various kinds ; and from these resulted secular dances. 
Meanwhile Music and Poetry, though still united, came to 
have an existence separate from dancing. The aboriginal 
Greek poems, religious in subject, were not recited but 
chanted ; and though at first the chant of the poet was ac- 
companied by the dance of the chorus, it ultimately grew 
into independence. . Later still, when the poem had been 
differentiated into epic and lyric — when it became the custom 
to sing the lyric and recite the epic — poetry proper was born. 
As during the same period musical instruments were being 
multiplied, we may presume that music came to have an exist- 
ence apart from words. And both of them were beginning 
to assume other forms besides the religious. Facts 

having like implications might be cited from the histories of 
later times and peoples ; as the practices of our own early 
minstrels, who sang to the harp heroic narratives versified 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 171 

by themselves to music of their own composition: thus 
uniting the now separate offices of poet, composer, vocalist, 
and instrumentalist. But, without further illustration, the 
common origin and gradual differentiation of Dancing, Poetry, 
and Music will be sufficiently manifest. 

The advance from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous 
is displayed not only in the separation of these arts from 
each other and from religion, but also in the multiplied 
differentiations which each of them afterwards undergoes. 
Not to dwell upon the numberless kinds of dancing that 
have, in course of time, come into use ; and not to occupy 
space in detailing the progress of poetry, as seen in the de- 
velopment of the various forms of metre, of rhyme, and of 
general organization ; let us confine our attention to music 
as a type of the group. As argued by Dr .Burney, 

and as implied by the customs of still extant barbarous races, 
the first musical instruments were, without doubt, percussive 
— sticks, calabashes, tom-toms — and were used simply to 
mark the time of the dance ; and in this constant repeti- 
tion of the same sound, we see music in its most homo- 
geneous form. The Egyptians had a lyre with three 
strings. The early lyre of the Greeks had four, constituting 
their tetrachord. In course of some centuries lyres of seven 
and eight strings were employed. And, by the expiration of 
a thousand years, they had advanced to their " great system " 
of the double octave. Through all which changes there of 
course arose a greater heterogeneity of melody. Simulta- 
neously there came into use the different modes — Dorian, 
Ionian, Phrygian, iEolian, and Lydian — answering to our 
keys : and of these there were ultimately fifteen. As yet, 
however, there was but little heterogeneity in the time of 
their music. Instrumental music during this period being 
merely the accompaniment of vocal music, and vocal music 
being completely subordinated to words, — the singer being 
also the poet, chanting his own compositions and making the 
lengths of his notes agree with the feet of his verses ; there 



172 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 






unavoidably arose a tiresome uniformity of measure, which, 
as Dr Burney says, " no resources of melody could disguise." 
Lacking the complex rhythm obtained by our equal bars and 
unequal notes, the only rhythm was that produced by the 
quantity of the syllables, and was of necessity comparatively 
monotonous. And further, it may be observed that the chant 
thus resulting, being like recitative, was much less clearly 
differentiated from ordinary speech than is our modern song. 
Nevertheless, considering the extended range of notes in use, 
the variety of modes, the occasional variations of time conse- 
quent on changes of metre, and the multiplication of instru- 
ments, we see that music had, towards the close of Greek 
civilization, attained to considerable heterogeneity : not in- 
deed as compared with our music, but as compared with that 
which preceded it. As yet, however, there existed 

nothing but melody : harmony was unknown. It was not 
amtil Christian church-music had reached some development, 
that music in parts was evolved ; and then it came into exist- 
ence through a very unobtrusive differentiation. Difficult as 
it may be to conceive, a priori, how the advance from melody 
to harmony could take place without a sudden leap, it is none 
the less true that it did so. The circumstance which prepared 
the way for it, was the employment of two choirs singing al- 
ternately the same air. Afterwards it became the practice 
(very possibly first suggested by a mistake) for the second 
choir to commence before the first had ceased ; thus producing 
a fugue. With the simple airs then in use, a partially har- 
monious fugue might not improbably thus result ; and a very 
partially harmonious fugue satisfied the ears of that age, as 
we know from still preserved examples. The idea having 
once been given, the composing of airs productive of fugal 
harmony would naturally grow up ; as in some way it did 
grow up out of this alternate choir- singing. And from the 
fugue to concerted music of two, three, four, and more parts, 
the transition was easy. Without pointing out in 

detail the increasing complexity that resulted from introducing 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 173 

notes of various lengths, from the multiplication of keys, 
from the use of accidentals, from varieties of time, from mo- 
dulations and so forth, it needs but to contrast music as it is, 
with music as it was, to see how immense is the increase of 
heterogeneity. We see this if, looking at music in its ensem- 
ble, we enumerate its many different genera and species — if 
we consider the divisions into vocal, instrumental, and mixed; 
and their subdivisions into music for different voices and dif- 
ferent instruments — if we observe the many forms of sacred 
music, from the simple hymn, the chant, the canon, motet, 
anthem, &c, up to the oratorio ; and the still more numerous 
forms of secular music, from the ballad up to the serenata, 
from the instrumental solo up to the symphony. Again, the 
same truth is seen on comparing any one sample of aboriginal 
music with a sample of modern music — even an ordinary 
song for the piano ; which we find to be relatively highly 
heterogeneous, not only in respect of the varieties in the pitch 
and in the length of the notes, the number of different notes 
sounding at the same instant in company with the voice, and 
the variations of strength with which they are sounded and 
sung, but in respect of the changes of key, the changes of 
time, the changes of timbre of the voice, and the many other 
modifications of expression. While between the old mono- 
tonous dance-chant and a grand opera of our own day, with 
its endless orchestral complexities and vocal combinations, 
the contrast in heterogeneity is so extreme that it seems 
scarcely credible that the one should have been the ancestor of 
the other. 

§ 52. Were they needed, many further illustrations might 
be cited. Going back to the early time when the deeds of the 
god-king, chanted and mimetically represented in dances 
round his altar, were further narrated in picture-writings on 
the walls of temples and palaces, and so constituted a rude 
literature, we might trace the development of Literature 
through phases in which, as in the Hebrew Scriptures, it pre- 



174 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 

sents in one "work, theology, cosmogony, history, biography, 
civil law, ethics, poetry ; through other phases in which, as in 
the Iliad, the religious, martial, historical, the epic, dramatic, 
and lyric elements are similarly commingled ; down to its pre- 
sent heterogeneous development, in which its divisions and 
subdivisions are so numerous and varied as to defy complete 
classification. Or we might track the evolution of Science : 
beginning with the era in which it was not yet differentiated 
from Art, and was, in union with Art, the handmaid of Re- 
ligion ; passing through the era in which the sciences were so 
few and rudimentary, as to be simultaneously cultivated by 
the same philosophers ; and ending with the era in which the 
genera and species are so numerous that few can enumerate 
them, and no one can adequately grasp even one genus. Or 
we might do the like with Architecture, with the Drama, with 
Dress. But doubtless the reader is already weary of illustra- 
tions ; and my promise has been amply fulfilled. I believe it 
has been shown beyond question, that that which the German 
physiologists have found to be the law of organic develop- 
ment, is the law of all development. The advance from 
the simple to the complex, through a process of success- 
ive differentiations, is seen alike in the earliest changes 
of the Universe to which we can reason our way back, and 
in the earliest changes which we can inductively establish ; 
it is seen in the geologic and climatic evolution of the Earth, 
and of every single organism on its surface ; it is seen in the 
evolution of Humanity, whether contemplated in the civil- 
ized individual, or in the aggregation of races ; it is seen in 
the evolution of Society, in respect alike of its political, its reli- 
gious, and its economical organization ; and it is seen in the 
evolution of all those endless concrete and abstract products 
of human activity, which constitute the environment of our 
daily life. From the remotest past which Science can fathom, 
up to the novelties of yesterday, that in whicb Evolution 
essentially consists, is the transformation of the homogeneous 
into the heterogeneous. 



CHAPTER in. 

THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 

§ 53. But now, does this generalization express the whole 
truth ? Does it include all the phenomena of Evolution ? and 
does it exclude all other phenomena ? A careful consider- 
ation of the facts, will show that it does neither. 

That there are changes from the less heterogeneous to the 
more heterogeneous, which do not come within what we call 
Evolution, is proved in every case of local disease. A por- 
tion of the body in which there arises a cancer, or other 
morbid growth, unquestionably displays a new differentiation. 
Whether this morbid growth be, or be not, more heterogene- 
ous than the tissues in which it is seated, is not the question. 
The question is, whether the structure of the organism as a 
whole, is, or is not, rendered more heterogeneous by the addi- 
tion of a part unlike every pre-existing part, both in form and 
composition. And to this question there can be none but an 
affirmative answer. Again, it might with apparent 

truth be contended, that the earlier stages of decomposition 
in a dead body, similarly involve an increase of heterogeneity. 
Supposing the chemical changes to commence in some parts 
of the body earlier than in other parts, as they commonly 
do ; and to affect different tissues in different, ways, as they 
must ; it seems to be a necessary admission that the entire 
body, made up of undecomposed parts and parts decomposed 
in different ways and degrees, has become more heterogene- 
ous than it was. Though greater homogeneity will be the 



176 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 

eventual result, the immediate result is the opposite. And yet 
this immediate result is certainly not evolution. But 

perhaps of all illustrations the least debateable are those fur- 
nished by social disorders and disasters. When in any na- 
tion there occurs a rebellion, which, while leaving some pro- 
vinces undisturbed, developes itself here in secret societies, 
there in public demonstrations, and elsewhere in actual ap- 
peal to arms, leading probably to conflict and bloodshed ; it 
must be admitted that the society, regarded as a whole, has 
so been rendered more heterogeneous. Or when a dearth 
causes commercial panic with its entailed bankruptcies, 
closed factories, discharged operatives, political agitations, 
food riots, incendiarisms ; it is manifest that as, throughout 
the rest of society, there still exists the ordinary organization 
displaying the usual phenomena, these new phenomena must 
be regarded as adding to the complexity previously existing. 
Nevertheless, it is clear that such changes so far from con- 
stituting a further stage of evolution, are steps towards dis- 
solution. 

There is good reason to think then, that the definition 
arrived at in the last chapter, is an imperfect one. "We may 
suspect, not that the process of evolution is different from the 
process there described ; but that the description did not con- 
tain all that it should. The changes above instanced as com- 
ing within the formula as it now stands, are so obviously 
different from the rest, that the inclusion of them implies 
some oversight — some distinction hitherto overlooked. Such 
further distinction we shall find really exists. 

§ 54. At the same time that all evolution is a change from 
the homogeneous to the heterogeneous, it is also a change from 
the indefinite to the definite. As well as an advance from 
simplicity to complexity, there is an advance from confusion 
to order — from undetermined arrangement to determined 
arrangement. In the process of development, no matter 
what sphere it is displayed in, there is not only a gradual 




THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 177 

multiplication of unlike parts ; but there is a gradual increase 
in the distinctness with which these parts are marked off from 
each other. And so is that increase of heterogeneity which 
characterizes Evolution, distinguished from that increase of 
heterogeneity which does not. For proof of this, it 

needs only to reconsider the instances given above. The 
structural changes constituting a disease, have no such definite- 
ness, either in locality, extent, or outline, as the structural 
changes constituting development. Though certain mor- 
bid growths arise much more commonly in some parts of the 
body than in others (as warts on the hands, cancer on the 
breasts, tubercle in the lungs), yet they are not confined to 
these parts ; nor, when found on them, are they anything like 
so precise in their relative positions as are the normal parts 
around them. In size*, again, they are extremely variable 
— -they bear no such constant proportion to the body as 
organs do. Their forms, too, are far less specific than organic 
forms. And they are extremely irregular or confused in 
their internal structures. That is to say, they are in all re- 
spects comparatively indefinite. The like peculiarity 
may be traced in decomposition. That state of total indefinite- 
ness to which a dead body is finally reduced, is a state towards 
which the putrifactive changes have tended from their com- 
mencement. Each step in the destruction of the organic com- 
pounds, is accompanied by a blurring of the minute structure 
— diminishes its distinctness. From the portions that have un- 
dergone most decomposition, there is a gradual transition to the 
less decomposed portions. And step by step the lines of or- 
ganization, once so precise, disappear. Similarly with 
social changes of an abnormal kind. A political outbreak 
rising finally to a rebellion, tends from the very first to 
obliterate the specializations, governmental and industrial, 
which previously existed. The disaffection which originates 
such an outbreak, itself implies a loosening of those ties by 
which the citizens are bound up into distinct classes and 
flub-classes. Agitation, growing into revolutionary meetings, 
9* 






178 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 



shows us a decided tendency towards the fusion of ranks that 
are usually separated. Acts of open insubordination exhibit a 
breaking through of those definite limits to individual conduct 
which were previously observed ; and a disappearance of the 
lines previously existing between those in authority and those 
beneath them. At the same time, by the arrest of trade, 
artizans and others lose their occupations ; and in so ceasing 
to be functionally distinguished, become fused into a mass 
from which the demarcations in great part vanish. 
And when at last there comes positive insurrection, all 
magisterial and official powers, all class distinctions, and all 
industrial differences, at once cease : organized society lapses 
into an unorganized aggregation of social units. How the 
like holds true of such social disasters as are entailed by 
famine, needs not be pointed out. On calling to mind that 
in cases of this kind the changes are from order towards 
disorder, it will at once be seen that like the foregoing they 
are changes from definite arrangements to indefinite ar- 
rangements. 

Thus then is that increase of heterogeneity which consti- 
tutes Evolution, distinguished from that increase of heteroge- 
neity which does not do so. Though in disease and death, 
individual or social, the earliest modifications may be con- 
strued as additions to the heterogeneity previously existing ; 
yet they cannot be construed as additions to the definiteness 
previously existing. They begin from the very outset to de- 
stroy this definiteness; and so, gradually produce a hetero- 
geneity that is indeterminate instead of determinate. Just in 
the same way that a city, already multiform in its variously 
arranged structures of various architecture, may be made 
more multiform by an earthquake, which leaves part of it 
standing and overthrows other parts in different ways and 
degrees, and yet is at the same time reduced from definite 
arrangement to indefinite arrangement ; so may organized 
bodies be made for a time more multiform by changes which 
are nevertheless disorganizing changes. And in the one case 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 179 

as in the other, it is the absence of definiteness which distin- 
guishes the multiformity of regression from the multiformity 
of progression. 

If the advance from the indefinite to the definite is an 
essential characteristic of Evolution, we shall of course find it 
everywhere displayed ; as in the last Chapter we found the 
advance from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous. With 
a view of showing that it is so, let us now briefly reconsider 
the same several classes of facts. 

§ 55. Beginning as before with a hypothetical illustration, 
we have to note that each further stage in the evolution of 
the Solar System, supposing it to have originated from dif- 
fused matter, was an advance towards more definite forms, 
and times, and forces. At first irregular in shape and with 
indistinct margins, the attenuated substance, as it concentrated 
and acquired a rotatory motion, must have assumed the shape 
of an oblate spheroid ; which, with every increase of density, 
became more specific in general outline, and had its surface 
more sharply marked off from the surrounding void. At the 
same time, the constituent portions of nebulous matter, in- 
stead of independently moving towards their common centre 
of gravity from all points, and tending to revolve round it in 
various planes, as they would at first do, must have had these 
planes more and more merged into a single plane ; and this 
plane must have gained greater precision as the concentra- 
tion progressed. To which add that in the gradual establish- 
ment of a common and determinate angular velocity, instead 
of the various and conflicting angular velocities of different 
parts, we have a further change of like nature. Ac- 

cording to the hypothesis, change from indistinct characteris- 
tics to distinct ones, was repeated in the evolution of each 
planet and satellite ; and may in them be traced to a much 
greater extent. A gaseous spheroid is less definitely marked 
off from the space around it than a fluid spheroid, since it is 
subject to larger and more rapid undulations of surface. 



180 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED, 

and to much greater distortions of general form ; and simi- 
larly a fluid spheroid, covered as it must be with waves of 
various magnitudes, is less definite than a solid spheroid. 
Nor is it only in greater fixity of surface that a planet in its 
last stage, is distinguished from a planet in its earlier stages. 
Its general form, too, is more precise. The sphere, to which in 
the end it very closely approximates, is a perfectly specific 
figure ; while the spheroid, under which figure it previously 
existed, being infinitely variable in oblateness, is an im- 
perfectly specific figure. And further, a planet having an 
axis inclined to the plane of its orbit, must, while its form 
is very oblate, have its plane of rotation greatly disturbed by 
the attraction of external bodies ; whereas its approach to a 
spherical form, involving a less" extreme precessional mo- 
tion, implies less marked variations in the direction of its 
axis. Nor is it only in respect of space-relations 

that the Solar System in general and in detail has become 
more precise. The like is true of time-relations. During 
the process of concentration the various portions of the 
nebulous mass must not only differ more or less from each 
other in their angular velocities, but each of them must 
gradually change the period in which it moves round the 
general axis. In every detached ring however, and in the 
resulting planet, this progressive alteration ceases : there 
results a determinate period of revolution. And similarly 
the time of axial rotation, which, during the formation of 
each planet, is continually diminishing, becomes at last prac- 
tically fixed : as in the case of the Earth, whose day is not a 
second less than it was 2000 years ago. It is scarce- 

ly needful to point out that the force-relations have simul- 
taneously become more and more settled. The exact calcu- 
lations of physical astronomy, show us how definite these 
force-relations now are ; while the great indefiniteness which 
once characterized them, is implied in the extreme difficulty, 
if not impossibility, of subjecting the nebular hypothesis to 
mathematical treatment. 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 181 

From that originally molten state of the Earth inferable 
from established geological data — a state in harmony with 
the nebular hypothesis but inexplicable on any other — the 
transition to its existing state has been through stages in 
which the characters became more determinate. Besides 
being, as above pointed out, comparatively unstable in surface 
and contour, a fluid spheroid is less definite than a solid 
spheroid in having no fixed distribution of parts. Currents 
of molten matter, though kept to certain general circuits by 
the conditions of equilibrium, cannot in the absence of solid 
boundaries be precise or permanent in direction : all parts 
must be in motion with respect to other parts. But a solidi- 
fication of the surface, even though but partial, is manifestly 
a step towards the establishment of definite relations of posi- 
tion. In a thin crust however, frequently ruptured as it 
must be by disturbing forces, and moved by every tidal un- 
dulation, such fixity of relative position can be but temporary. 
Only as the crust slowly increases in thickness, can there arise 
distinct and settled geographical relations. Observe too that 
when, on a crust that has cooled to the requisite degree, there 
begins to precipitate the water floating above as vapour, the 
water which is precipitated cannot maintain any definiteness 
either of state or place. Falling on a surface not thick 
enough to preserve anything beyond slight variations of 
level, it must form small shallow deposits over areas suffi- 
ciently cool to permit condensation ; which areas must not 
only pass insensibly into others that are too hot for this, but 
must themselves from time to time be so raised in tempera- 
ture as to drive off the water lying on them. With pro- 
gressive refrigeration, however, — with an increasing thick- 
ness of crust, a consequent formation of larger elevations and 
depressions, and the condensation of more atmospheric water, 
there comes an arrangement of parts that is comparatively 
fixed in both time and space ; and the definiteness of state 
and position increases, until there results such a distri- 
bution- of continents and oceans as we now see — a distribution 



182 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 

that is not only topographically precise, but also in its cliff- 
marked coast-lines presents a more definite division of land 
from water than could have existed during the period when 
islands of low elevation had shelving beaches up which the 
tide ebbed and flowed to great distances. Eespecting 

the characteristics technically classed as geological, we may 
draw parallel inferences. While the Earth's crust was thin, 
mountain-chains were impossibilities : there could not have 
been long and well-defined axes of elevation, with distinct 
water- sheds and areas of drainage. Moreover, from small 
islands admitting of but small rivers, and tidal streams both 
feeble and narrow, there would result no clearly-marked sedi- 
mentary strata. Confused and varying masses of detritus, 
such as those now found at the mouths of brooks, must have 
been the prevailing formations. And these could give place 
to distinct strata, only as there arose continents and oceans, 
with their great rivers, long coast-lines, and wide-spreading 
marine currents. How there must simultaneously 

have resulted more definite meteorological characters, need 
not be pointed out in detail. That differences of climates 
and seasons must have grown relatively decided as the heat of 
the Sun became distinguishable from the proper heat of the 
Earth ; that the establishment through this cause of com- 
paratively constant atmospheric currents, must have simi- 
larly produced more specific conditions in each locality ; and 
that these effects must have been aided by increasing per- 
manence in the distribution of land and sea and of ocean 
currents ; are conclusions which are sufficiently obvious. 

Let us turn now to the evidence furnished by organic 
bodies. In place of deductive illustrations like the fore- 
going, we shall here find numerous illustrations which, as 
being inductively established, are less open to criticism. The 
process of mammalian development, for example, will sup- 
ply us with numerous proofs ready- described by embryo- 
logists. The first change which the ovum of a 

mammal undergoes, after continued segmentation has re- 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 183 

duced its yelk to a mulberry-like mass, is the appearance of 
a greater definiteness in the peripheral cells of this mass : 
each of which acquires a distinct enveloping membrane. 
These peripheral cells, vaguely distinguished from the in- 
ternal ones both by their greater completeness and by 
their minuter sub-division, coalesce to form the blasto- 
derm or germinal membrane. One portion of the blasto- 
derm presently becomes contrasted with the rest, through 
the accumulation of cells still more sub-divided, which, to- 
gether, form an opaque roundish spot. This area germin- 
ativa, as it is called, is not sharply delineated, but shades off 
gradually into the surrounding parts of the blastoderm ; 
and the area pellucida, subsequently formed in the midst of 
this germinal area, is similarly without any precise margin. 
The " primitive trace," which makes its appearance in the 
centre of the area pellucida, and is the rudiment of that verte- 
brate axis which is to be the fundamental characteristic of 
the mature animal, is shown by its name to be at first inde- 
finite—a mere trace. Beginning as a shallow groove, this 
becomes slowly more pronounced : its sides grow higher, 
their summits overlap, and at last unite ; and so the indefi- 
nite groove passes into a definite tube, forming the vertebral 
canal. In this vertebral canal the leading divisions of the 
brain are at first discernible only as slight bulgings ; while 
the vertebrae commence as indistinct modifications of the tissue 
bounding the canal. Simultaneously, the outer portion of the 
blastoderm has been undergoing separation from the inner por- 
tion : there has been a division into the serous and mucous 
layers — a division at the outset indistinct, and traceable only 
about the germinal area, but which insensibly spreads through- 
out nearly the whole germinal membrane, and becomes defi- 
nite. From the mucous layer, the development of the aliment- 
ary canal proceeds as that of the vertebral canal does from 
the serous layer. Originally a simple channel along the under 
surface of the embryonic mass, the intestine is rendered step by 
step more distinct by the bending down, on each side, of ridges 



184 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 

which filially join to form a tube — the permanent absorbing 
surface is by degrees clearly cut off from that temporary ab- 
sorbing surface of which it was at first a part like all the rest. 
And in an analogous manner the entire embryo, which at first 
lies outspread upon the surface of the yelk-sack, gradually rises 
up from it, and, by the infolding of its ventral surface, becomes 
a separate mass, connected with the yelk-sack only by a nar- 
row duct. These changes through which the general 
structure of the embryo is marked out with slowly-increas- 
ing precision, are paralleled in the evolution of each organ. 
The heart is at first a mere aggregation of cells, of which the 
inner liquify to form the cavity, while the outer are trans- 
formed into the walls ; and when thus sketched out, the heart 
is indefinite not only as being unlined by limiting mem- 
brane, but also as being but vaguely distinguishable from 
the great blood-vessels : of which it is little more than a 
dilatation. By and by the receiving portion of the cavity 
becomes distinct from the propelling portion. Afterwards 
there begins to be formed across the ventricle, a septum, 
which, however, is some time before it completely shuts off 
the two halves from each other ; while the later-formed 
septum of the auricle remains incomplete during the whole 
of foetal life. Again, the liver commences as a multiplication 
of certain cells in the wall of the intestine. The thickening 
produced by this multiplication "increases so as to form a 
projection upon the exterior of the canal ;" and at the same 
time that the organ grows and becomes distinct from the in- 
testine, the channels which permeate it are transformed into 
ducts having clearly-marked walls. Similarly, by the in- 
crease of certain cells of the external coat of the alimentary 
canal at its upper portion, are produced buds from which 
the lungs are developed ; and these, in their general out- 
lines and detailed structure, acquire distinctness step by 
step. Changes of this order continue long after 
birth ; and, in the human being, are some of them not com- 
pleted till middle life. During youth, most of the articular 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 185 

surfaces of the bones remain rough and fissured — the cal- 
careous deposit ending irregularly in the surrounding carti- 
lage. But between puberty and the age of thirty, the articu- 
lar surfaces are finished off by the addition of smooth, hard, 
sharply-cut "epiphyses." Thus we may say that during 
Evolution, an increase of definiteness continues long after 
there ceases to be any appreciable increase of heterogeneity. 
And, indeed, there is reason to think that those structural 
modifications which take place after maturity, ending in 
old age and death, are modifications of this nature ; since 
they result in a growing rigidity of structure, a consequent 
restriction of movement and of functional pliability, a 
gradual narrowing of the limits within which the vital 
processes go on, ending at length in an organic adjustment 
too precise — too narrow in its margin of possible variation to 
permit the requisite adaptation to external changes of condi- 
tion. 

To demonstrate that the Earth's Flora and Fauna, regarded 
either as wholes or in their separate species, have progressed 
in definiteness, is of course no more possible than it was to 
demonstrate that they have progressed in heterogeneity : lack 
of facts being an obstacle to the one conclusion as to the other. 
If, however, we allow ourselves to reason from the hypothesis, 
now daily rendered more probable, that every species of 
organic form up to the most complex, has arisen out of the 
simplest through the accumulation of modifications upon 
modifications, just as every individual organic form arises ; 
we shall see that in such case there must have been a pro- 
gress from the indeterminate to the determinate, both in the 
particular forms and in the groups of forms. We 

may set out with the significant fact that many of the lowest 
living organisms (which are analogous in structure to the 
germs of all higher ones) are so indefinite in character that 
it is difficult, if not impossible, to decide whether they are 
plants or animals. Respecting sundry of them there are un- 
settled disputes between zoologists and botanists ; and it has 



186 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 

even been proposed to group them into a separate kingdom, 
forming a common basis to the animal and vegetal king- 
doms. Note next that among the Protozoa, extreme indefi- 
niteness of shape is very general. In the shell-less Rhizopods 
and their allies, not only is the form so irregular as to admit 
of no description, but it is neither alike in any two individuals 
nor in the same individual at successive moments. By the 
aggregation of such creatures, are produced, among other in- 
definite bodies, the sponges — bodies that are indefinite in size, 
in contour, in internal arrangement, and in the absence of an 
external limiting membrane. As further showing the re- 
latively indeterminate character of the simplest organisms, 
it may be mentioned that their structures vary very greatly 
with surrounding conditions : so much so that, among the 
Protozoa and Protophyta, many forms which were once 
classed as distinct species, and even as distinct genera, are 
found to be merely varieties of one species. If now we 
call to mind how precise in their attributes are the highest 
organisms — how sharply cut their outlines, how invariable 
their proportions, and how comparatively constant their struc- 
tures under changed conditions, we cannot deny that greater 
definiteness is one of their characteristics ; and that if they 
have been evolved out of lower organisms, an increase of 
definiteness has been an accompaniment of their evolu- 
tion. That in course of .time, species have become 
more sharply marked off from other species, genera from 
genera, and orders from orders, is a conclusion not admitting 
of a more positive establishment than the foregoing ; and 
must, indeed, stand or fall with it. If, however, species and 
genera and orders have resulted from the process of " natural 
selection/' then, as Mr. Darwin shows, there must have been 
a tendency to divergence, causing the contrasts between 
groups to become more and more pronounced. By the dis- 
appearance of intermediate forms, less fitted for special 
spheres of existence than the extreme forms they connected, 
the differences between the extreme forms must be rendered 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 187 

more decided ; and so, from indistinct and unstable varieties, 
must slowly be produced distinct and stable species. Of 
which, inference it may be remarked, not only that it follows 
from a process to which the organic creation is of necessity 
ever subject, but also that it is in harmony with what we 
know respecting races of men and races of domestic animals. 
Evidence that in the course of psychial development, 
there is a change from the vague to the distinct, may be 
seen in every nursery. The confusion of the infant's per- 
ceptions is shown by its inability to distinguish persons. 
The dimness of its ideas of direction and distance, may be 
inferred from the ill-guided movements of its hands, and from 
its endeavours to grasp objects far out of reach. Only by 
degrees does the sense of equilibrium, needful for safe stand- 
ing and moving, gain the requisite precision. Through the 
insensible steps that end in comprehensible speech, we may 
trace an increase in the accuracy with which sounds are dis- 
criminated and in the nicety with which they are imitated. 
And similarly during education, the change is towards the 
establishment of internal relations more perfectly correspond- 
ing to external ones — to exactness in calculations, to a better 
representation of objects drawn, to a more correct spelling, to 
a completer conformity to the rules of speech, to clearer ideas 
respecting the affairs of life. How in the further 

progress to maturity the law still holds, needs not here be 
pointed out ; more especially as it will presently be shown in 
treating of the evolution of intelligence during the advance 
of civilization. The only further fact calling for remark, is, 
that this increase of mental definiteness is, in some ways, 
manifested even during the advance from maturity to old 
age. The habits of life grow more and more fixed; the 
character becomes less capable of change ; the quantity of 
knowledge previously acquired ceases to have its limits alter- 
able by additions ; and the opinions upon every point admit 
of no modification. 

Still more manifestly do the successive phases through 



188 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 

which societies pass, display the progress from indeterminate 
arrangement to determinate arrangement. A wandering 
tribe of savages, as being fixed neither in its locality nor in 
the relative positions of its parts, is far less definite than a 
nation, covering a territory clearly marked out, and formed 
of individuals grouped together in towns and villages. In 
such a tribe the social relations are similarly confused and 
unsettled. Political authority is neither well established nor 
precise. Distinctions of rank are neither clearly marked nor 
impassable. " Medicine-men" and " rain-makers " form a 
class by no means as distinct from the rest of the community 
as eventually becomes the priesthood they foreshadow. And 
save in the different occupations of men and women, there are 
no complete industrial divisions. Only in tribes of considerable 
size, which have enslaved other tribes, is the economical dif- 
ferentiation decided. Any one of these primitive 
societies however that developes, becomes step by step more 
specific. Increasing in size, consequently ceasing to be so 
nomadic, and restricted in its range by neighbouring tribes, 
it acquires, after prolonged border warfare, a more settled 
territorial boundary. The distinction between the royal 
race and the people, grows so extreme as to amount in the 
popular apprehension to a difference of nature. The warrior- 
class attains a perfect separation from classes devoted to the 
cultivation of the soil or other occupations regarded as servile. 
And there arises a priesthood that is defined in its rank, its 
functions, its privileges. This sharpness of definition, grow- 
ing both greater and more variously exemplified as societies 
advance to maturity, is extremest in those that have reached 
their full development or are declining. Of ancient Egypt 
we read that its social divisions were strongly-marked and its 
customs rigid. Recent investigations make it more than ever 
clear, that among the Assyrians and surrounding peoples, not 
only were the laws unalterable, but even the minor habits, 
down to those of domestic routine, possessed a sacredness which 
insured their permanence. In India at the present day, the 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 189 

unchangeable distinctions of caste, not less than the constancy 
in modes of dress, industrial processes, and religious observ- 
ances, show us how fixed are the arrangements where the 
antiquity is great. Nor does China with its long-settled 
political organization, its elaborate and precise conventions, 
and its unprogressive literature, fail to exemplify the same 
truth. The successive phases of our own and neigh- 

bouring societies, furnish facts somewhat different in kind but 
similar in meaning. After our leading class- divisions had 
become tolerably well-established, it was long before they 
acquired their full precision. Originally, monarchical author- 
ity was more baronial, and baronial authority more mon- 
archical, than they afterwards became. Between modern 
priests and the priests of old times, who while officially 
teachers of religion were also warriors, judges, architects, 
there is a marked difference in definiteness of function. And 
among the people engaged in productive occupations, the like 
contrast would be found to hold: the industrial office has 
become more distinct from the military ; and its various divi- 
sions from each other. A history of our constitution, re- 
minding us how, after prolonged struggles, the powers of 
King, Lords, and Commons, have been gradually settled, 
would clearly exhibit analogous changes. Countless facts 
bearing the like construction would meet us, were we to 
trace the development of legislation : in the successive 
stages of which, we should find statutes made more precise 
in their provisions — more specific in their applications to 
particular cases. Even at the present time we see that each 
new law, beginning as a vague proposition, is, in the 
course of enactment, elaborated into specific clauses ; and 
further that only after its interpretation has been established 
by judges' decisions in courts of justice, does it reach its final 
definiteness. From the history of minor institutions like 
evidence may be gathered. Religious, charitable, literary, 
and all other societies, beginning with ends and methods 
roughly sketched out and easily modifiable, show us how, by 



190 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 

the accumulation of rules and precedents, the purposes become 
more distinct and the modes of action more restricted ; until 
at last death often results from a fixity which admits of 
no adaptation to new conditions. Should it be objected that 
among civilized nations there are examples of decreasing 
definiteness, (instance the breaking down of limits between 
ranks,) the reply is, that such apparent exceptions are the ac- 
companiments of a social metamorphosis — a change from the 
military or predatory type of social structure, to the indus- 
trial or mercantile type, during which the old lines of organiz- 
ation are disappearing and the new ones becoming more 
marked. m 

That all organized results of social action, pass in the 
course of civilization through parallel phases, is demon- 
strable. Being, as they are, objective products of subjective 
processes, they must display corresponding changes ; and 
that they do this, the cases of Language, of Science, of Art, 
clearly prove. 

If we strike out from our sentences everything but nouns 
and verbs, we shall perceive how extremely vague is the ex- 
pression of ideas in undeveloped tongues. When we note 
how each inflection of a verb or addition by which the case 
of a noun is marked, serves to limit the conditions of action 
or of existence, we see that these constituents of speech en- 
able men more precisely to communicate their thoughts. 
That the application of an adjective to a noun or an adverb 
to a verb, narrows the class of things or changes indi- 
cated, implies that these additional words serve further to 
define the meaning. And similarly with other parts of 
speech. The like effect results from the multiplica- 

tion of words of each order. When the names for objects, 
and acts, and qualities, are but few, the range of each is pro- 
portionately wide, and its meaning therefore unspecific. The 
similes and metaphors so abundantly used by aboriginal races, 
are simply vehicles for indirectly and imperfectly conveying 
ideas, which lack of words disables them from conveying di- 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 191 

rectly and perfectly. In contrasting these figurative expres- 
sions, interpretable in various senses, with the expressions 
which we should use in place of them, the increase of exact- 
ness which wealth of language gives, is rendered very obvi- 
ous. Or to take a case from ordinary life, if we compare the 
speech of the peasant, who, out of his limited vocabulary, can 
describe the contents of the bottle he carries, only as " doc- 
tor's-stuff" which he has got for his " sick" wife, with the 
speech of the physician, who tells those educated like himself 
the particular composition of the medicine, and the particular 
disorder for which he has prescribed it; we have vividly 
brought home to us, the precision which language gains by the 
multiplication of terms. Again, in the course of its 

evolution, each tongue acquires a further accuracy through 
processes which fix the meaning of each word. Intellectual 
intercourse tends gradually to diminish laxity of expression. 
By and by dictionaries give definitions. And eventually, 
among the most cultivated, indefiniteness is not tolerated, 
either in the terms used or in their grammatical combina- 
tions. Once more, languages considered as wholes, 
become gradually more distinct from each other, and from 
their common parent : as witness in early times the diver- 
gence from the same root of two languages so unlike as Greek 
and Latin, and in later times the development of three Latin 
dialects into Italian, French, and Spanish. 

In his " History of the Inductive Sciences/' Dr. Whewell 
says that the Greeks failed in physical philosophy because 
their "ideas were not distinct, and appropriate to the facts." 
I do not quote this remark for its luminousness ; since it 
would be equally proper to ascribe the indistinctness and in- 
appropriateness of their ideas to the imperfection of their physi- 
cal philosophy ; but I quote it because it serves as good evi- 
dence of the indefiniteness of primitive science. The same 
work and its fellow on " The Philosophy of the Inductive 
Sciences," supply other evidences equally good, because 
equally independent of any such hypothesis as is here to be 



192 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 

established. Respecting mathematics we have the fact that 
geometrical theorems grew out of empirical methods ; and that 
these theorems, at first isolated, did not acquire the clearness 
which complete demonstration gives, until they were arranged 
by Euclid into a series of dependent propositions. At a later 
period the same general truth was exemplified in the progress 
from the "method of exhaustions" and the "method of indi- 
visibles " to the " method of limits;" which is the central idea 
of the infinitesimal calculus. In early mechanics, too, may be 
traced a dim perception that action and re-action are equal and 
opposite ; though for ages after, this truth remained unformu- 
lated. And similarly, the property of inertia, though not 
distinctly comprehended until Kepler lived, was vaguely re- 
cognized long previously. " The conception of statical force," 
"was never presented in a distinct form till the works of 
Archimedes appeared;" and " the conception of accelerating 
force was confused, in the mind of Kepler and his contempo- 
raries, and did not become clear enough for purposes of sound 
scientific reasoning before the succeeding century. f To which 
specific assertions may be added the general remark, that 
" terms which originally, and before the laws of motion were 
fully known, were used in a very vague and fluctuating 
sense, were afterwards limited and rendered precise." When 
we turn from abstract scientific conceptions to the concrete 
previsions of science, of which astronomy furnishes us with 
numerous examples, the like contrast is visible. The times 
at which celestial phenomena will occur, have been predicted 
with ever-increasing accuracy : errors once amounting to 
days, have been reduced down to seconds. The correspond- 
ence between the real and supposed forms of orbits, has 
been growing gradually more precise. Originally thought 
circular, then epicyclical, then elliptical, orbits are now 
ascertained to be curves which always deviate more or 
less from perfect ellipses, and which are ever undergoing 
change. But the general advance of Science in de- 

finiteness, is best shown by the contrast between its qualitative 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 193 

stage, and its quantitative stage. At first, the facts ascer- 
tained were, that between such and such phenomena some 
connexion existed — that the appearances a and b always 
occurred together or in succession ; but it was neither 
known what was the nature of the relation between a and b> 
nor how much of a accompanied, so much of b. The develop- 
ment of Science has in part been the reduction of these vague 
connexions to distinct ones. Most relations have been de- 
termined as belonging to the classes mechanical, chemi- 
cal, thermal, electric, magnetic, &c. ; and we have learnt to 
infer the amounts of the antecedents and consequents from 
each other with an exactness that becomes ever greater. 
Were there space to state them, illustrations of this truth 
might be cited from all departments of physics ; but it must 
suffice here to instance the general progress of chemistry. 
Besides the conspicuous fact that we have positively ascer- 
tained the constituent elements of an immense number of 
compounds which our ancestors could not analyze, and of a 
far greater number which they never even saw, there is the 
still more conspicuous fact that the combining equivalents of 
these elements are accurately calculated. The beginnings 
of a like advance from qualitative to quantitative prevision, 
may be traced even in some of the higher sciences. Physio- 
logy shows it in the weighing and measuring of organic pro- 
ducts, and of the materials consumed. By Pathology it is 
displayed in the use of the statistical method of determining 
the sources of diseases, and the effects of treatment. In 
Zoology and Botany, the numerical comparisons of Floras 
and Faunas, leading to specific conclusions respecting their 
sources and distributions, illustrate it. And in Sociology, 
questionable as are the conclusions usually (Irawn-from the 
classified sum-totals of the census, from Board-of- Trade 
tables, and from criminal returns, it must be admitted that 
these imply a progress towards more accurate conceptions of 
social phenomena. That an essential characteristic 

of advancing Science is increase in definiteness, appears in- 
10 



194 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 

deed almost a truism, when we remember that Science may 
be described as definite knowledge, in contradistinction to 
that indefinite knowledge possessed by the uncultured. And 
if, as we cannot question, Science has, in the slow course of 
ages, been evolved out of this indefinite knowledge of the 
uncultured ; then, the gradual acquirement of that great de- 
finiteness which now distinguishes it, must have been a lead- 
ing trait in its evolution. 

The Arts, industrial and aesthetic, furnish illustrations 
perhaps still more striking. Flint implements of the kind 
recently found in certain of the later geologic deposits — im- 
plements so rude that some have held them to be of natural 
rather than of artificial origin — show the extreme want of 
precision in men's first handy works. Though a great ad- 
vance on these is seen in the tools and weapons of existing 
savage tribes, yet an inexactness in forms and fittings, more 
than anything else distinguishes such tools and weapons 
from those of civilized races. In a less degree, the produc- 
tions of semi-barbarous nations are characterized by like de- 
fects. A Chinese junk with all its contained furniture and 
appliances, nowhere presents a perfectly straight line, a uni- 
form curve, or a true surface. Nor do the utensils and 
machines of our ancestors fail to exhibit a similar inferiority 
to our own. An antique chair, an old fireplace, a lock of the 
last century, or almost any article of household use that has 
been preserved for a few generations, will prove by contrast 
how greatly the industrial products of our time excel those 
of the past in their accuracy. Since planing machines have 
been invented, it has become possible to produce absolutely 
straight lines, and surfaces so truly level as to be air-tight 
when applied to each other. While in the dividing- engine 
of Troughton, in the micrometer of "WTiitworth, and in mi- 
croscopes that show fifty thousand divisions to the inch, we 
have an exactness as far exceeding that reached in the works 
of our great-grandfathers, as theirs exceeded that of the 
aboriginal celt-makers. In the Fine Arts there has 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 195 

been a parallel process. From the rudely carved and painted 
idols of savages, through, the early sculptures characterized 
by limbs having no muscular detail, wooden-looking drapery, 
and faces devoid of individuality, up to the later statues of 
the Greeks or some of those now produced, the increased 
accuracy of representation is conspicuous. Compare the 
mural paintings of the Egyptians with the paintings of 
mediaeval Europe, or these with modern paintings, and the 
more precise rendering of the appearances of objects is mani- 
fest. So too is it with the delineations of fiction and the 
drama. In the marvellous tales current among Eastern 
nations, in the romantic legends of feudal Europe, as well as 
in the mystery-plays and those immediately succeeding them, 
we see great want of correspondence to the realities of life ; 
not only in the predominance of supernatural events and ex- 
tremely improbable coincidences, but also in the vaguely- 
indicated personages, who are nothing more than embodi- 
ments of virtue and vice in general, or at best of particular 
virtues and vices. Through transitions that need not be 
specified, there has been a progressive diminution, in both 
fiction and the drama, of whatever is unnatural — whatever 
does not answer to real life. And now, novels and plays are 
applauded in proportion to the fidelity with which they exhi- 
bit individual characters with their motives and consequent 
actions; improbabilities, like the impossibilities which pre- 
ceded them, are disallowed ; and there is even an incipient 
abandonment of those elaborate plots which the realities of 
life rarely if ever furnish. 

Were it needful, it would be easy to accumulate evidences 
of various other kinds. "The progress from myths and 
legends, extreme in their misrepresentations, to a history 
thai; has slowly become, and is still becoming, more accurate ; 
the establishment of settled systematic methods of doing 
things, instead of the indeterminate ways at first pursued ; 
and the great increase in the number of points on which 
conflicting opinion has settled down into exact knowledge ; 



196 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 

might severally be used further to exemplify the general 
truth enunciated. The basis of induction is, however, al- 
ready sufficiently wide. Proof that all Evolution is from 
the indefinite to the definite, we find to be not less abundant 
than proof that all Evolution is from the homogeneous to 
the heterogeneous. The one kind of change is co-extensive 
with the other — is equally with it exhibited throughout 
Nature. 

§ 56. To form a complete conception of Evolution, we 
have to contemplate it under yet another aspect. This ad- 
vance from the indefinite to the definite, is obviously not 
primary but secondary — is an incidental result attendant on 
the finishing of certain changes. The transformation of a 
whole that was originally uniform, into a combination of 
multiform parts, implies a progressive separation. While 
this is going on there must be indistinctness. Only as each 
separated division draws into its general mass those diffused 
peripheral portions which are at first imperfectly disunited 
from the peripheral portions of neighbouring divisions, can 
it acquire anything like a precise outline. And it cannot 
become perfectly definite until its units are aggregated into 
a compact whole. That is to say, the acquirement of defi- 
niteness is simply a concomitant of complete union of the ele- 
ments constituting each component division. Thus, 
Evolution is characterized not only by a continuous multipli- 
cation of parts, but also by a growing oneness in each part. 
And while an advance in heterogeneity results from pro- 
gressive differentiation, an advance in definiteness results 
from progressive integration. The two changes are simul- 
taneous ; or are rather opposite aspects of the same change. 
This change, however, cannot be rightly comprehended with- 
out looking at both its sides. Let us then once more consi- 
der Evolution under its several manifestations ; for the pur- 
pose of noting how it is throughout a process of integration. 

The illustrations furnished by the Solar System, supposing 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED 197 

it to have had a nebular origin, are so obvious as scarcely to 
need indicating. That as a whole, it underwent a gradual 
concentration while assuming its present distribution of 
parts ; and that there subsequently took place a like concen- 
tration of the matter forming each planet and satellite, is the 
leading feature of the hypothesis. The process of integration 
is here seen in its simplest and most decided form. 

Geologic evolution, if we trace it up from that molten 
state of the Earth's substance which we are obliged to postu- 
late, supplies us with more varied facts of like meaning. 
The advance from a thin crust, at first everywhere fissured 
and moveable, to a crust so solid and thick as to be but now 
and then very partially dislocated by disturbing forces, 
exemplifies the unifying process; as does likewise the ad- 
vance from a surface covered with small patches of land and 
water, to one divided into continents and oceans — an advance 
also resulting from the Earth's gradual solidification. More- 
over, the collection of detritus into strata of great extent, and 
the union of such strata into extensive " systems," becomes 
possible only as surfaces of land and water become wide, and 
subsidences great, in both area and depth ; whence it follows 
that integrations of this order must have grown more pro- 
nounced as the Earth's crust thickened. Different 
and simpler instances of the process through which mixed 
materials are separated, and the kindred units aggregated 
into masses, are exhibited in the detailed structure of the 
Earth. The phenomena of crystalization may be cited en 
masse, as showing how the unifications of similar elements 
take place wherever the conditions permit. Not only do we 
see this where there is little or no hindrance to the approach 
of the particles, as in the cases of crystals formed from 
solutions, or by sublimation ; but it is also seen where there 
are great obstacles to their approach. The flints and the 
nodules of iron pyrites that are found in chalk, as well as 
the silicious concretions which occasionally occur in lime- 
stone, can be interpreted only as aggregations of atoms of 



198 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 

silex or sulphuret of iron, originally diffused almost uni- 
formly through the deposit, but gradually collected round 
certain centres, notwithstanding the solid or semi- solid state 
of the surrounding matter. Iron-stone as it ordinarily oc- 
curs, presents a similar phenomenon to be similarly explained; 
and what is called bog iron-ore supplies the conditions and 
the result in still more obvious correlation. 

During the evolution of an organism, there occurs, as 
every physiologist knows, not only separation of parts, but 
coalescence of parts. In the mammalian embryo, the heart, at 
first a long pulsating blood-vessel, by and by twists upon 
itself and becomes integrated. The layer of bile-cells consti- 
tuting the rudimentary liver, do not simply become different 
from the wall of the intestine in which they at first He ; but 
they simultaneously diverge from it and consolidate into an 
organ. The anterior segments of the cerebro-spinal axis, 
which are at first continuous with the rest, and distinguished 
only by their larger size, undergo a gradual union ; and at 
the same time the resulting head consolidates into a mass 
clearly marked off from the rest of the vertebral column. The 
like process, variously exemplified in other organs, is mean- 
while exhibited by the body as a whole; which becomes 
integrated, somewhat in the same way that the contents of 
an outspread handkerchief become integrated when its edges 
are drawn in and fastened to make a bundle. Analogous 
changes go on long after birth, and continue even up to old 
age. In the human being that gradual solidification of the 
bony framework, which, during childhood, is seen in the co- 
alescence of portions of the same bone ossified from different 
centres, is afterwards seen in the coalescence of bones that 
were originally distinct. The appendages of the vertebrae unite 
with the vertebral centres to which they belong — a change not 
completed until towards thirty. At the same time the epi- 
physes, formed separately from the main bodies of their re- 
spective bones, have their cartilaginous connexions turned into 
osseous ones — are fused to the masses beneath them. The com- 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 199 

ponent vertebrae of the sacrum, which remain separate till about 
the sixteenth year, then begin to unite ; and in ten or a dozen 
years more their union is complete. Still later occurs the co- 
alescence of the coccygeal vertebrae ; and there are some other 
bony unions which are not completed until advanced age. 
To which add that the increase of density and toughness, 
going on throughout the tissues in general during life, may 
be regarded as the formation of a more highly integrated sub- 
stance. The species of change thus illustrated under 
its several aspects in the unfolding of the human body, may 
be traced in all animals. That mode of it which consists in 
the union of homogeneous parts originally separate, has been 
described by Milne-Edwards and others, as exhibited in vari- 
ous of the invertebrata ; though it does not seem to have been 
included by them as an essential peculiarity in the process of 
organic development. We shall, however, be led strongly to 
suspect that progressive integration should form part of the 
definition of this process, when we find it displayed not only 
in tracing up the stages passed through by every embryo, but 
also in ascending from the lower living creatures to the higher. 
And here, as in the evolution of individual organisms, it goes 
on both longitudinally and transversely : under which dif- 
ferent forms we may indeed most conveniently consider 
it. Of longitudinal integration, the sub-kingdom An- 
nulosa supplies abundant examples. Its lower members, such 
as worms and myriapods, are mostly characterized by the great 
number of segments composing them : reaching in some cases 
to several hundreds. But in the higher divisions — crusta- 
ceans, insects, and spiders — we find this number reduced down 
to twenty- two, thirteen, or even fewer ; while, accompanying 
the reduction, there is a shortening or integration of the 
whole body, reaching its extreme in the crab and the spider* 
The significance of these contrasts, as bearing upon the general 
doctrine of Evolution, will be seen when it is pointed out tha 
they are parallel to those which arise during the develop- 
ment of individual annulosa. In the lobster, the head and 



200 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 

thorax form one compact box, made by the union of a num- 
ber of segments which in the embryo were separable. Simi- 
larly, the butterfly shows us segments so much more closely 
united than they were in the caterpillar, as to be, some of 
them, no longer distinguishable from each other. The 
Vertebrata again, throughout their successively higher classes, 
furnish like instances of longitudinal union. In most fishes, 
and in reptiles that have no limbs, the only segments of the 
spinal column that coalesce, are those forming the skull. In 
most mammals and in birds ? a variable number of vertebrae be- 
come fused together to form the sacrum ; and in the higher 
quadrumana and man, the caudal vertebrae also lose their sepa- 
rate individualities in a single os coccygis. That which 
we may distinguish as transverse integration, is well illustrated 
among the Annulosa in the development of the nervous 
system. Leaving out those most degraded forms which do 
not present distinct ganglia, it is to be observed that the 
lower annulose animals, in common with the larvae of the 
higher, are severally characterized by a double chain of 
ganglia running from end to end of the body ; while in the 
more perfectly formed annulose animals, this double chain be- 
comes more or less completely united into a single chain. 
Mr. Newport has described the course of this concentration 
as exhibited in insects ; and by Rathke it has been traced in 
crustaceans. During the early stages of the Astacus Jluvia- 
tilis, or common cray-fish, there is a pair of separate ganglia 
to each ring. Of the fourteen pairs belonging to the head 
and thorax, the three pairs in advance of the mouth consoli- 
date into one mass to form the brain, or cephalic ganglion. 
Meanwhile, out of the remainder, the first six pairs severally 
unite in the median line, while the rest remain more or less 
separate. Of these six double ganglia thus formed, the 
anterior four coalesce into one mass ; the remaining two 
coalesce into another mass ; and then these two masses 
coalesce into one. Here we see longitudinal and transverse 
integration going on simultaneously; and in the highest 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 201 

crustaceans they are both carried still further. The Verte- 
brata clearly exhibit transverse integration in the develop- 
ment of the generative system. The lowest of the mam- 
malia — the Mohotremata — in common with birds, to which 
they are in many respects allied, have oviducts which to- 
wards their lower extremities are dilated into cavities, sever- 
ally performing in an imperfect way the function of a uterus. 
" In the Marsupialia there is a closer approximation of the 
two lateral sets of organs on the median line ; for the oviducts 
converge towards one another and meet (without coalescing) 
on the median line ; so that their uterine dilatations are in 
contact with each other, forming a true ' double uterus.' . . . 
As we ascend the series of ' placental • mammals, we find the 

lateral coalescence becoming more and more complete 

In many of the Rodentia the uterus still remains completely 
divided into two lateral halves ; whilst in others these coalesce 
at their lower portions, forming a rudiment of the true ' body' 
of the uterus in the human subject. This part increases at 
the expense of the lateral 'cornua' in the higher herbivora 
and carnivora ; but even in the lower quadrumana the uterus 
is somewhat cleft at its summit."* 

In the social organism integrative changes are not less 
clearly and abundantly exemplified. Uncivilized societies 
display them when wandering families, such as the bushmen 
show us, unite into tribes of considerable numbers. Among 
these we see a further progress of like nature everywhere 
manifested in the subjugation of weaker tribes by stronger 
ones ; and in the subordination of their respective chiefs to 
the conquering chief. The partial combinations thus resulting, 
which among aboriginal races are being continually formed 
and continually broken up, become, among the superior races, 
both more complete and more permanent. If we trace the 
metamorphoses through which our own society, or any adja- 
cent one, has passed, we see this unification from time to time 

* Carpenter's Prin. of Comp. Phys., p. 617. 
10* 



202 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 

repeated on a larger scale and with increasing stability. The 
aggregation of juniors and the children of juniors under 
elders and the children of elders ; the consequent establish- 
ment of groups of vassals bound to their respective nobles ; 
the subordination afterwards established of groups of inferior 
nobles to dukes or earls ; and the still later establishment of 
the kingly power over dukes or earls ; are so many instances 
of increasing consolidation. This process through which petty 
tenures are combined into feuds, feuds into provinces, pro- 
vinces into kingdoms, and finally contiguous kingdoms into 
a single one, slowly completes itself by destroying the original 
lines of demarkation. And it may be further remarked of 
the European nations as a whole, that in the tendency to 
form alliances more or less lasting, in the restraining influ- 
ences exercised by the several governments over each other, 
in the system that is gradually establishing itself of settling 
international disputes by congresses, as well as in the 
breaking down of commercial barriers and the increasing 
facilities of communication, we may trace the incipient stage 
of a European confederation — a still larger integration than 
any now established. But it is not only in these ex- 

ternal unions of groups with groups, and of the compound 
groups with each other, that the general law is exemplified. 
It is exemplified also in unions that take place internally, as 
the groups become more highly organized. These, of which 
the most conspicuous are commercial in their origin and func- 
tion, are well illustrated in our own society. We have inte- 
grations consequent on the simple growth of adjacent parts 
performing like functions : as, for instance, the junction of 
Manchester with its calico- weaving suburbs. We have other 
integrations that arise when, out of several places producing 
a particular commodity, one monopolizes more and more of 
the business, and leaves the rest to dwindle : as witness the 
growth of the Yorkshire cloth- districts at the expense of 
those in the west of England ; or the absorption by Stafford- 
shire of the pottery-manufacture, and the consequent decay 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 203 

of the establishments that once nourished at Worcester, 
Derby, and elsewhere. And we have those yet other inte- 
grations produced by the actual approximation of the simi- 
larly-occupied parts : whence result such facts as the con- 
centration of publishers in Paternoster Kow ; of lawyers in 
the Temple and neighbourhood; of corn-merchants about 
Mark Lane ; of civil engineers in Great George Street ; of 
bankers in the centre of the city. Industrial combinations 
that consist, not in the approximation or fusion of parts, but 
in the establishment of common centres of connexion, are ex- 
hibited in the Bank clearing-house and the Railway clearing- 
house. While of yet another genus are those unions which 
bring into relation the more or less dispersed citizens who are 
occupied in like ways : as traders are brought by the Ex- 
change and the Stock- Exchange ; and as are professional men 
by institutes, like those of Civil Engineers, Architects, &c. 

Here, as before, it is manifest that a law of Evolution 
which holds of organisms, must hold too of all objective re- 
sults of their activity ; and that hence Language, and Science, 
and Art, must not only in the course of their development 
display increasing heterogeneity and definiteness, but also in- 
creasing integration. We shall find this conclusion to be in 
harmony with the facts. 

' Among uncivilized races, the many- syllabled terms used for 
not uncommon objects, as well as the descriptive character of 
proper names, show us that the words used for the less fami- 
liar things are formed by compounding the words used for the 
more familiar things. This process of composition is sometimes 
found in its incipient stage — a stage in which the component 
words are temporarily united to signify some unnamed object, 
and do not (from lack of frequent use) permanently cohere. 
But in the majority of inferior languages, the process of" ag- 
glutination/ ' as it is called, has gone far enough to produce 
considerable stability in the compound words : there is a mani- 
fest integration. How small is the degree of this integration, 
however, when compared with that reached in well-developed 



204 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 

languages is shown both by the great length of the compound 
words used for things and acts of constant occurrence, and 
by the separableness of their elements. Certain North- Ame- 
rican tongues very well illustrate this. In a Bicaree vocabu- 
lary extending to fifty names of common objects, which in 
English are nearly all expressed by single syllables, there is 
not one monosyllabic word; and in the nearly- allied voca- 
bulary of the Pawnees, the names for these same common 
objects are monosyllabic in but two instances. Things so 
familiar to these hunting tribes as dog and ooiv, are, in the 
Pawnee language, ashakish and teeragish ; the hand and the 
eyes are respectively iksheeree and keereekoo ; for day the 
term is shakoorooeeshairet, and for devil it is tsaheekshkakoo- 
raiwah ; while the numerals are composed of from two syl- 
lables up to five, and in Eicaree up to seven. That the great 
length of these familiar words implies a low degree of deve- 
lopment, and that in the formation of higher languages out 
of lower there is a progressive integration, which reduces the 
polysyllables to dissyllables and monosyllables, is an infer- 
ence fully confirmed by the history of our own language. 
Anglo-Saxon steorra has been in course of time consolidated 
into English star, mona into moon, and nama into name. The 
transition through the intermediate semi- Saxon is clearly 
traceable. Sunn became in semi-Saxon sune, and in English 
son : the final e of sune being an evanescent form of the 
original u. The change from the Anglo-Saxon plural, formed 
by the distinct syllable as, to our plural formed by the ap- 
pended consonant s, shows us the same* thing : smithas in be- 
coming smiths, and endas in becoming ends, illustrate pro- 
gressive coalescence. So too does the disappearance of the 
terminal an in the infinitive mood of verbs ; as shown in the 
transition from the Anglo-Saxon cuman to the semi-Saxon 
cumme, and to the English come. Moreover the process has 
been slowly going on, even since what we distinguish as Eng- 
lish was formed. In Elizabeth's time, verbs were still very 
frequently pluralized by the addition of en — we tell was we 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 205 

tellen ; and in some rural districts this form of speech may- 
even now be heard. In like manner the terminal ed of the 
past tense, has united with the word it modifies. Burn-ed has 
in pronunciation become burnt ; and even in writing the 
terminal t has in some cases taken the place of the ed. Only 
where antique forms in general are adhered to, as in the 
church-service, is the distinctness of this inflection still main- 
tained. Further, we see that the^ compound vowels have 
been in many cases fused into single vowels. That in bread 
the e and a were originally both sounded, is proved by the 
fact that they are still so sounded in parts* where old habits 
linger. We, however, have contracted the pronunciation into 
bred ; and we have made like changes in many other com- 
mon words. Lastly, let it be noted that where the frequency 
of repetition is greatest, the process is carried furthest ; as 
instance the contraction of lord (originally laford) into lied 
in the mouths of Barristers ; and still better the coalescence 
of God be with you into Good bye. Besides exhibit- 

ing in this way the integrative process, Language equally 
exhibits it throughout all grammatical development. The 
lowest kinds of human speech, having merely nouns and 
verbs without inflections to them, manifestly permit no such 
close union of the elements of a proposition as results when 
the relations are either marked by inflections or by words 
specially used for purposes of connexion. Such speech is 
necessarily what we significantly call " incoherent." To a con- 
siderable extent, incoherence is seen in the Chinese language. 
" If, instead of saying I go to London, Jigs come from Turkey, 
the sun shines through the air, we said, I go end London, 
Jigs come origin Turkey, the sun shines passage air, we should 
discourse of the manner of the Chinese." From this " apto- 
tic " form, there is clear evidence of a transition by coales- 
cence to a form in which the connexions of words are ex- 
pressed by the addition to them of certain inflectional words. 
" In Languages like the Chinese," remarks Dr Latham, " the 
separate words most in use to express relation may become 



206 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 

adjuncts or annexes." To this he adds the fact that " the 
numerous inflexional languages fall into two classes. In one, 
the inflexions have no appearance of having been separate 
words. In the other, their origin as separate words is demon- 
strable." From which the inference drawn is, that the 
" aptotic " languages, by the more and more constant use of 
adjuncts, gave rise to the " agglutinate " languages, or those 
in which the original sepgxateness of the inflexional parts can 
be traced ; and that out of these, by further use, arose the 
" amalgamate " languages, or those in which the original 
separateness of the inflexional parts can no longer be traced. 
Strongly corroborative of this inference is the unquestion- 
able fact, that by such a process there have grown out of the 
amalgamate languages, the " anaptotic " languages ; of which 
our own is the most perfect example — languages in which, by 
further consolidation, inflexions have .almost disappeared, 
while, to express the verbal relations, certain new kinds of 
words have been developed. When we see the Anglo-Saxon 
inflexions gradually lost by contraction during the develop- 
ment of English, and, though to a less degree, the Latin in- 
flexions dwindling away during the development of French, 
we cannot deny that grammatical structure is modified by in- 
tegration ; and seeing how clearly the earlier stages of gram- 
matical structure are explained by it, we can scarcely doubt 
that it has been going on from the first. And now 

mark that in proportion to the degree of the integration above 
described, is the extent to which integration of another order 
is shown. Aptotic languages are, as already pointed out, 
necessarily incoherent — the elements of a proposition cannot 
be tied into a definite and complete whole. But as fast as 
coalescence produces inflected words, it becomes possible to 
unite them into sentences of which the parts are so mutually 
dependent that no considerable change can be made without 
destroying the meaning. Yet a further stage in this process 
may be noted. After the development of those grammatical 
forms which make definite statements possible, we do not at 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 207 

first find them used to express anything beyond statements 
of a simple kind. A single subject with a single predicate, 
accompanied by but few qualifying terms, are usually all. If 
we compare, for instance, the Hebrew scriptures with writings 
of modern times, a marked difference of aggregation among 
the groups of words, is visible. In the number of subordinate 
propositions which accompany the principal one ; in the va- 
rious complements to subjects and predicates; and in the 
numerous qualifying clauses — all of them united into one 
complex whole — many sentences in modern composition ex- 
hibit a degree of integration not to be found in ancient ones. 
The history of Science presents facts of the same meaning 
at every step. Indeed the integration of groups of like 
entities and like relations, may be said to constitute the most 
conspicuous part of scientific progress. A glance at the classi- 
ficatory sciences, shows us not only that the confused aggre- 
gations which the vulgar make of natural objects, are differ- 
entiated into groups that are respectively more homogeneous, 
but also that these groups are gradually rendered complete 
and compact. While, instead of considering all marine 
creatures as fish, shell-fish, and jelly-fish, Zoology establishes 
divisions and sub- divisions under the heads Vertebrata, 
Annulosa, Mollusca, &c. — while in 'place of the wide and 
vague assemblage popularly described as " creeping things," 
it makes the specific classes Annelida, Myriopoda, Insecta, 
Arachnida ; it at the same time gives to these an increasing 
consolidation. The several orders and genera of which each 
consists, are arranged according to their affinities and bound 
together under common definitions ; at the same time that, 
by extended observation and rigorous criticism, the previously 
unknown and undetermined forms are integrated with their 
respective congeners. Nor is the same process less 

clearly manifested in those sciences which have for their 
subject-matter, not classified objects, but classified relations. 
Under one of its chief aspects, the advance of Science 
is the advance of generalization ; and generalization is the 






208 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 

uniting into groups all like co-existencies and sequences 
among phenomena. Not only, however, does the colligation 
of a number of concrete relations into a generalization of the 
lowest order, exemplify the principle enunciated ; but it is 
again and again exemplified in the colligation of these lowest 
generalizations into higher ones, and these into still higher 
ones. Year by year are established certain connexions 
among orders of phenomena that seem wholly unallied ; and 
these connexions, multiplying and strengthening, gradually 
bring the seemingly unallied orders under a common bond. 
When, for example, Humboldt quotes the saying of the Swiss 
— "it is going to rain because we hear the murmur of the 
torrents nearer/ ' — when he remarks the relation between this 
and an observation of his own, that the cataracts of the Ori- 
noco are heard at a greater distance by night than by day — 
when he notes the essential parallelism existing between these 
facts and the fact that the unusual visibility of remote ob- 
jects is also an indication of coming rain — and when he 
points out that the common cause of these variations is the 
smaller hindrance offered to the passage of both light and 
sound, by media which are comparatively homogeneous, 
either in temperature or hygrometric state ; he helps in 
bringing under one generalization the phenomena of light 
and those of sound. Experiment having shown that these 
conform to like laws of reflection and refraction, the conclu- 
sion that they are both produced by undulations gains pro- 
bability : there is an incipient integration of two great orders 
of phenomena, between which no connexion was suspected in 
times past. A still more decided integration has been of late 
taking place between the once independent sub-sciences of 
Electricity, Magnetism, and Light. And indeed it must be 
obvious to those who are familiar with the present state of 
Science, that there will eventually take place a far wider 
integration, by which all orders of phenomena will be com- 
bined as differently conditioned forms of one ultimate fact. 
Nor do the industrial and sesthetic Arts fail to supply us 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 209 

with equally conclusive evidence. The progress from rude, 
small, and simple tools, to perfect, complex, and large ma- 
chines, illustrates not only a progress ' in heterogeneity and 
in definiteness, but also in integration. Among what are 
classed as the mechanical powers, the advance from the lever 
to the wheel-and-axle is an advance from a simple agent to an 
agent made up of several simple ones combined together. On 
comparing the wheel-and-axle, or any of the machines used 
in early times with those used now, we find an essential 
difference to be, that in each of our machines several of the 
primitive machines are united into one. A modern appa- 
ratus for spinning or weaving, for making stockings or lace, 
contains not simply a lever, an inclined plane, a screw, a 
wheel-and-axle, united together ; but several of each inte- 
grated into one complex whole. Again, in early ages, when 
horse-power and man-power were alone employed, the motive 
agent was not bound up with the tool moved ; but the two 
have now become in many cases fused together : the fire-box 
and boiler of a locomotive are combined with the machinery 
which the steam works. Nor is this the most extreme case. 
A still more extensive integration is exhibited in every 
large factory. Here we find a large number of complicated 
machines, all connected by driving shafts with the same 
steam-engine — all united with it into one vast appa- 
ratus. Contrast the mural decorations of the 
Egyptians and Assyrians with modern historical paintings, 
and there becomes manifest a great advance in unity of com- 
position — in the subordination of the parts to the whole. 
One of these ancient frescoes is in truth made up of a num- 
ber of pictures that have little mutual dependence. The 
several figures of which each group consists, show very im- 
perfectly by their attitudes, and not at all by their expres- 
sions, the relations in which they stand to each other ; the 
respective groups might be separated with but little loss of 
meaning ; and the centre of chief interest, which should link 
all parts together, is often inconspicuous. The same trait 



210 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 

may be noted in the tapestries of medieval days. Repre- 
senting perhaps a hunting scene, one of these exhibits men, 
horses, dogs, beasts, birds, trees, and flowers, miscellaneously 
dispersed : the living objects being variously occupied, and 
mostly with no apparent consciousness of each other's proxi- 
mity. But in the paintings since produced, faulty as many 
of them are in this respect, there is always a more or less 
manifest co-ordination of parts — an arrangement of attitudes, 
expressions, lights, and colours, such as to combine the pic- 
ture into an organic whole ; and the success with which unity 
of effect is educed from variety of components, is a chief test 
of merit. In music, progressive integration is dis- 

played in still more numerous ways. The simple cadence 
embracing but a few notes, which in the chants of savages is 
monotonously repeated, becomes among civilized races, a long 
series of different musical phrases combined into one whole ; 
and so complete is the integration, that the melody cannot be 
broken off in the middle, nor shorn of its final note, without 
giving us a painful sense of incompleteness. When to the 
air, a bass, a tenor, and an alto are added ; and when to the 
harmony of different voice-parts there is added an accompani- 
ment ; we see exemplified integrations of another order, which 
grow gradually more elaborate. And the process is carried 
a stage higher when these complex solos, concerted pieces, 
choruses, and orchestral effects, are combined into the vast 
ensemble of a musical drama ; of which, be it remembered, 
the artistic perfection largely consists in the subordination of 
the particular effects to the total effect. Once more 

the Arts of literary delineation, narrative and dramatic, furnish 
us with parallel illustrations. The tales of primitive times, 
like those with which the story-tellers of the East still daily 
amuse their listeners, are made up of successive occurrences 
that are not only in themselves unnatural, but have no 
natural connexion : they are but so many separate adven- 
tures put together without necessary sequence. But in a 
good modern work of imagination, the events are the proper 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 211 

products of the characters working under given conditions ; 
and cannot at will be changed in their order or kind, without 
injuring or destroying the general effect. And further, the 
characters themselves, which in earlv fictions play their re- 
, spective parts without showing us how their minds are modi- 
fied by each other or by the events, are now presented to us 
as held together by complex moral relations, and as acting 
and re-acting upon each other's natures. 

Evolution, then, is in all cases a change from a more difX 
fused or incoherent form, to a more consolidated or coherent * 
form. This proves to be a characteristic displayed equally 
in those earliest changes which the Universe as a whole is 
supposed to have undergone, and in those latest changes 
which we trace in society and the products of social life. 
Nor is it only that in the development of a planet, of an 
organism, of a society, of a science, of an art, the process 
of integration is seen in a more complete aggregation of each 
whole and of its constituent parts ; but it is also shown in an 
increasing mutual dependence of the parts. Dimly fore- 
shadowed as this mutual dependence is among inorganic 
phenomena, both celestial and terrestrial, it becomes distinct 
among organic phenomena. From the lowest living forms 
upwards, the degree of development is marked by the degree 
in which the several parts constitute a mutually- dependent 
whole. The advance from those creatures which live on in 
each part when cut in pieces, up to those creatures which 
cannot lose any considerable part without death, nor any in- 
considerable part without great constitutional disturbance, is 
clearly an advance to creatures which are not only more in- 
tegrated in respect of their solidification, but are also more 
integrated as consisting of organs that live for and by each 
other. The like contrast between undeveloped and developed 
societies, need not be shown in detail : the ever-increasing 1 
co-ordination of parts, is conspicuous to all. And it must / 
suffice just to indicate that the same thing holds true of 
social products : as, for instance, of Science ; which has be- 



212 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 

come highly integrated not only in the sense that each di- 
vision is made up of mutually-dependent propositions, but 
also in the sense that the several divisions are mutually-de- 
pendent — cannot carry on their respective investigations 
without aid from each other. 

It seems proper to remark that the generalization here 
variously illustrated, is akin to one enunciated by Schelling, 
that Life is the tendency to individuation. Struck by the 
fact that an aggregative process is traceable throughout 
nature, from the growth of a crystal up to the development 
of a man ; and by the fact that the wholes resulting from this 
process, completer in organic than in inorganic bodies, are 
completest where the vital manifestations are the highest ; 
Schelling concluded that this characteristic was the essential 
one. According to him, the formation of individual bodies 
is not incident to Life, but is that in which Life fundament- 
ally consists. This position is, for several reasons, 
untenable. In the first place, it requires the conception of 
Life to be extended so as to embrace inorganic phenomena ; 
since in crystallization, and even in the formation of amor- 
phous masses of matter, this tendency to individuation is 
displayed. Schelling, fully perceiving this, did indeed accept 
the implication ; and held that inorganic bodies had life 
lower only in degree than that of organic bodies — their 
degree of life being measured by their degree of individua- 
tion. This bold assumption, which Schelling evidently 
made to save his definition, is inadmissible. Rational phi- 
losophy cannot ignore those broad distinctions which the 
general sense of mankind has established. If it transcends 
them, it must at the same time show what is their origin ; 
how far only they are valid ; and why they disappear from 
a higher point of view. Note next that the more 
complete individuality which Schelling pointed out as 
characterizing bodies having the greatest amount of life, 
is only one of their structural traits. The greater degree of 
heterogeneity which they exhibit, is, as we have seen, a 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 213 

much more conspicuous peculiarity ; and though it might 
possibly be contended that greater heterogeneity is remotely 
implied by greater individuality, it must be admitted that in 
defining Life as the tendency to individuation, no hint is given 
that the bodies which live most are the most heterogeneous 
bodies. Moreover it is to be remarked that this 

definition of Schelling, refers much more to the structures of 
living bodies than to the processes which constitute Life. Not 
Life, but the invariable accompaniment of Life, is that which 
his formula alone expresses. The formation of a completer 
organic whole, a more fully individuated body, is truly a 
necessary concomitant of a higher life ; and the development 
of a higher life must therefore be accompanied by a tendency 
to greater individuation. But to represent this tendency as 
Life itself, is to mistake an incidental result for an original 
cause. Life, properly so called, consists of multiform changes 
united together in various ways ; and is not expressed either 
by an anatomical description of the organism which manifests 
it, or by a history of the modifications through which such 
organism has reached its present structure. Yet it is only 
in such description and such history that the tendency to 
individuation is seen. Lastly, this definition which 

Schelling gave of Life is untenable, not only because it refers 
rather to the organism than to the actions going on in it ; 
but also because it wholly ignores that connexion between 
the organism and the external world, on which Life depends. 
All organic processes, physical and psychial, having for their 
object the maintenance of certain relations with environing 
agencies and objects ; it is impossible that there should be a 
true definition of Life, in which the environment is not 
named. Nevertheless, Schelling's conception was 

not a baseless one. Though not a truth, it was yet the 
adumbration of a truth. In defining Life as the tendency to 
individuation, he had in view that formation of a more com- 
pact, complete, and mutually- dependent whole, which, as we 
have seen, is one characteristic of Evolution in general. His 



214 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 

error was, firstly, in regarding it as a characteristic of Life, 
instead of a characteristic of living bodies, displayed, though 
in a less degree, by other bodies ; and, secondly, in regarding 
it as the sole characteristic of such bodies. It re- 

mains only to add, that for expressing this aspect of the pro- 
cess of Evolution, the word integration is for several reasons 
preferable to the word individuation. Integration is the true 
antithesis of differentiation ; it has not that tacit reference to 
living bodies which the word individuation cannot be wholly 
freed from ; it expresses the aggregative tendency not only 
as displayed in the formation of more complete wholes, but 
also as displayed in the consolidation of the several parts ot 
which such wholes are made up ; and it has not the remotest 
teleological implication. In short, it simply formulates in the 
most abstract manner, a wide induction untainted by any 
hypothesis. 

§ 57. Thus we find that to complete the definition ar- 
rived at in the last chapter, much has to be added. What 
was there alleged is true ; but it is not the whole truth. 
Evolution is unquestionably a change from a homogeneous 
state to a heterogeneous state ; but, as we have seen, there 
are some advances in heterogeneity which cannot be included 
in the idea of Evolution. This undue width of the definition, 
implies the omission of some further peculiarity by which 
Evolution is distinguished ; and this peculiarity we find to 
be that the more highly developed things become, the more 
definite they become. Advance from the indefinite to the 
definite, is as constantly and variously displayed as advance 
from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous. And we are 
thus obliged to regard it as an essential characteristic of 
Evolution. Further analysis, however, shows us that this 
increase of definiteness is not an independent process ; but 
is rather the necessary concomitant of another process. A 
very little consideration of the facts proves that a change 
from the indefinite to the definite, can arise only through a 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 215 

completer consolidation of the respective parts, and of the 
whole which they constitute. And so we find that while 
Evolution is a transformation of the homogeneous into the 
heterogeneous, and of the indefinite into the definite, it is also 
a transformation of the incoherent into the coherent. Along 
with the differentiation shown in increasing contrasts of 
parts with each other, there goes on an integration, by which 
the parts are rendered distinct units, as well as closely united 
components of one whole. These clauses here added 

to the definition, are essential ones ; not only as being need- 
ful to distinguish Evolution from that which is not Evolution, 
but likewise as being needful to express all which the idea of 
Evolution includes. Progressive integration with the grow- 
ing definiteness necessarily resulting from it, is of co-ordinate 
importance with the progressive differentiation before dwelt 
upon — nay, from one point of view, may be held of greater 
importance. For organization, in which what we call Evo- 
lution is most clearly and variously displayed, consists even 
more in the union of many parts into one whole, than in the 
formation of many parts. The Evolution which we see through- 
out inorganic nature, is lower than that which organic nature 
exhibits to us, for the especial reason that the mutual depend- 
ence of parts is extremely indefinite, even when traceable at 
all. In an amorphous mass of matter, you may act mechan- 
ically or chemically upon one part without appreciably affect- 
ing the other parts. Though their electrical or thermal states 
may be for the moment altered, their original states are soon 
resumed. Even in the highest inorganic aggregation — a 
crystal — the apex may be broken off and leave the rest intact : 
the only clear evidence of mutual dependence of parts, being 
the ability of the crystal to regenerate its apex if replaced in 
the solution from which it was formed. But the constituent 
parts of organic bodies can severally maintain their existing 
states, only while remaining in connexion. Even in the lowest 
living forms, mutilation cannot be carried beyond a certain 
point without decomposition ensuing. As we advance through 



216 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 

the higher up to the highest forms, we see a gradual nar- 
rowing of the limits within which the mutilation does not 
cause destruction : a progressive increase of mutual depend- 
ence or integration which is, at the same time, the condition 
to greater functional perfection. In societies this truth is 
equally manifest. That the component units slowly segre- 
gate into groups of different ranks and occupations, is a fact 
scarcely more conspicuous than is the fact that these groups 
are necessary to each other's existence. And we cannot con- 
template the still-progressing division of labour, without see- 
ing that the interdependence becomes ever greater as the 
evolution becomes higher. It remains only to point 

out definitely, what has been already implied, that these 
several forms of change which have been successively de- 
scribed as making up the process of Evolution, are not in 
reality separate forms of change, but different aspects of the 
same change. Intrinsically the transformation is one and in- 
divisible. The establishment of differences that become gra- 
dually more decided, is evidently but the beginning of an 
action which cannot be pushed to its extreme without pro- 
ducing definite divisions between the parts, and reducing 
each part to a separate mass. But with our limited faculties, 
it is not possible to take in the entire process at one view ; 
nor have we any single terms by which the process can be 
described. Hence we are obliged to contemplate each of its 
aspects separately, and to find a separate expression for its 
characteristic. 

Having done this, we are now in a position to frame a 
true idea of Evolution. Combining these partial definitions 
we get a complete definition, which may be most conveniently 
expressed thus — Evolution is a change from an indefinite, in- 
coherent homogeneity , to a definite, coherent heterogeneity; 
through continuous differentiations and integrations. 

It may perhaps be remarked that the last of these clauses 
is superfluous ; since the differentiation and integration are 
implied in the first clause. This is true : the transition which 



THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 217 

the first clause specifies, is impossible save through the pro- 
cess specified in the second. Nevertheless, a mere state- 
ment of the two extreme stages with which Evolution begins 
and ends, omitting all reference to changes connecting them, 
leaves the mind with but an incomplete idea. The idea be- 
comes much more concrete when these changes are described. 
Hence, though not logically necessary, the second clause of 
the definition is practically desirable. 

Before closing the chapter, a few words must be added 
respecting certain other modes of describing Evolution. Or- 
ganic^bodies, from the changes of which the idea of Evolution 
has arisen, and to the changes of which alone it is usually 
applied, are often said to progress from simplicity to com- 
plexity. The transformation of the simple into the complex, 
and of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous, are used as 
equivalent phrases ; or, if any difference is recognized be- 
tween them, it is to the advantage of the first, which is held 
to be the more specific. After what has been said, however, 
it must be obvious that Evolution cannot be thus adequately 
formulated. No hint is given of that increased definiteness 
which we have found to be a concomitant of development. 
Nor is there anything implying the greater mutual depend- 
ence of parts. Nevertheless, the brevity of the expression 
gives it a value for ordinary purposes ; and I shall probably 
hereafter frequently use it, both in those cases where more 
precise language is not demanded, and in those cases 
where it indicates the particular aspect of Evolution referred 
to. Another description frequently given of Evolu- 

tion, is, that it is a change from the general to the special. 
The more or less spherical germ from which every organism, 
animal and vegetal, proceeds, is comparatively general : alike 
in the sense that in appearance and chemical nature it is very 
similar to all other germs ; and also in the sense that its form 
is less markedly distinguished from the average forms of ob- 
jects at large, than is that of the mature organism — a contrast 
which equally holds of internal structure. But this progress 
11 



218 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION, CONTINUED. 

from the more general to the more special, is rather a deriva- 
tive than an original characteristic. An increase of speciality- 
being really an increase in the number of attributes — an ad- 
dition of traits not possessed by bodies that are in other re- 
spects similar — is a necessary result of multiplying differen- 
tiations. In other words, general and special are subjective 
or ideal distinctions involved in our conceptions of classes, 
rather than objective or real distinctions presented in the 
bodies classified. Nevertheless, this abstract formula is not 
without its use. It expresses a fact of much significance ; 
and one which we shall have constantly to refer to when, 
dealing with the relations between organic bodies and their 
surrounding conditions. 

The law of Evolution however, be it expressed in full as 
above, or in these shorter but less specific phrases, is essenti- 
ally that which has been exhibited in detail throughout the 
foregoing pages. So far as we can ascertain, this law is uni- 
versal. I It is illustrated with endless repetition, and in count- 
less ways, wherever the facts are abundant ; and where the 
facts do not suffice for induction, deduction goes far to supply 
its place. Among all orders of phenomena that lie within 
the sphere of observation, we see ever going on the process 
of change above defined; and many significant indications 
warrant us in believing, that the same process of change went 
on throughout that remote past which lies beyond the sphere 
of observation. If we must form any conclusion respecting 
the general course of things, past, present, and future, the 
one which the evidence as far as it goes justifies, and the 
only one for which there is any justification, is, that the 
change from an indeterminate uniformity to a determinate 
multiformity which we everywhere see going on, has been 
going on from the first, and will continue to go on. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CAUSES OF EVOLUTION. 

§ 58. Is this law ultimate or derivative ? Must we rest 
satisfied with the conclusion that throughout all classes of 
concrete phenomena such is the mode of evolution ? Or is it 
possible for us to ascertain why such is the mode of evolution ? 
May we seek for some all-pervading principle which under- 
lies this all-pervading process ? Can we by a further step 
reduce our empirical generalization to a rational general- 
ization ? 

Manifestly this community of result implies community of 
causation. It may be that of such causation no account can 
be given, further than that the Unknowable is manifested to 
us after this manner. Or, it may be, that the mode of mani- 
festation is reducible to simpler ones, from which these 
many complex consequences follow. Analogy suggests the 
latter inference. At present, the conclusion that every kind 
of Evolution is from a state of indefinite incoherent homo- 
geneity to a state of definite coherent heterogeneity, stands 
in the same position as did the once ultimate conclusion that 
every kind of organized body undergoes, when dead, a more 
or less rapid decay. And as, for the various kinds of decom- 
position through which animal and vegetal products pass, we 
nave now discovered a rationale in the chemical affinities of 
their constituent elements ; so, possibly, this universal trans- 
formation of the simple into the complex may be affiliated 
upon certain simple primordial principles. 



220 THE CAUSES OF EVOLUTION. 

Such, cause or causes of Evolution, may be sought for with- 
out in the least assuming that the ultimate mystery can be 
fathomed. Fully conscious that an absolute solution is for 
ever beyond us, we may still, look for a relative solution — 
may try to reduce the problem to its lowest terms. Just as 
it was possible to interpret Kepler's laws as necessary conse- 
quences of the law of gravitation, and then to admit that 
gravitation transcends analysis ; so it may be possible to 
interpret the law of Evolution as the necessary consequence 
of some deeper law, beyond which we may nevertheless be 
unable to go. 

§ 59. The probability of common causation, and the possi- 
bility of formulating it, being granted, it will be well before 
going further, to consider what must be the general character- 
istics of such causation, and in what direction we ought to 
look for it. We can with certainty predict that be it simple 
or compound, the cause has a high degree of generality ; see- 
ing that it is common to such infinitely varied phenomena : 
in proportion to the universality of its application must be 
the abstractness of its character. Whatever be the agency 
and the conditions under which it acts, we need not expect 
to see in them an obvious explanation of this or that species of 
Evolution, because they equally underlie species of Evolution 
of quite a different order. Determining Evolution of every 
kind — astronomic, geologic, organic, ethnologic, social, eco- 
nomic, artistic, &c. — they must be concerned with something 
common to all these ; and to see what these possess in com- 
mon, will therefore be the best method of guiding ourselves 
towards the desired solution. 

The only obvious respect in which all kinds of Evolution 
are alike, is, that they are modes of change. Every phenome- 
non to which we apply the term, presents us with a succes- 
sion of states ; and when such succession ceases, we no longer 
predicate Evolution. Equally in those past forms of it which 
are more or less hypothetical, and in those forms of it which 



THE CAUSES OF EVOLUTION. 221 

we see going on around, this is the common character- 
istic. Note next, that the kind of change which 
constitutes Evolution, is broadly distinguished from change 
of an equally general kind, in this, that it is change of inter- 
nal relations instead of change of external relations. All 
things in motion through space are the subjects of change ; 
but while in this which we call mechanical motion, the re- 
lative position as measured from surrounding objects is con- 
tinually altered, there is not implied any alteration in the 
positions of the parts of the moving body in respect to each 
other. Conversely, a body exhibiting what we call Evo- 
lution, while it either may or may not display new relations 
of position to the things around it, must display new relations 
of position among the parts of which it is made up. Thus 
we narrow the field of inquiry by recognizing the change in 
which Evolution consists, as a change in the arrangement of 
parts : of course using the word parts in its most extended 
sense, as signifying both ultimate units and masses of such 
units. Further, we have to remember that this 
change in the arrangement of parts which constitutes Evo- 
lution, is a certain order of such change. As we saw in the 
last chapter, there is a change in the arrangement of parts 
which is not Evolution but Dissolution'— a destructive change 
as opposed to a constructive change — a change by which the 
definite is gradually rendered indefinite, the coherent slowly 
becomes incoherent, and the heterogeneous eventually lapses 
into comparative homogeneity. Thus then we re- 
duce that which we have to investigate to its most abstract 
shape. Our task is to find the cause or causes of a certain 
order of change that takes place in the arrangement of parts. 

§ 60. Evidently the problem, as thus expressed, brings us 
face to face with the ultimate elements of phenomena in ge- 
neral. It is impossible to account for a certain change in 
the arrangement of the parts of any mass, without involving 
— first, the matter which makes up the parts thus re-arranged; 






222 THE CAUSES OF EVOLUTION. 

next, the motion exhibited during the re- arrangement ; and 
then, the force producing this motion. The problem is a 
dynamical one ; and there can be no truly scientific solution 
of it, save one given in terms of Matter, Motion, and Force 
— terms in which all other dynamical problems are expressed 
and solved. 

The proposal thus to study the question from a purely phy- 
sical point of view, will most likely, notwithstanding what 
has been said in the first part of this work, raise in some 
minds either alarm or prejudice. Having, throughout life, 
constantly heard the charge of materialism made against 
those who ascribed the more involved phenomena to agencies 
like those seen in the simplest phenomena, most persons have 
acquired a repugnance to such methods of interpretation; 
and when it is proposed to apply them universally, even 
though it is premised that the solution they give can be but 
relative, more or less of the habitual feeling will probably 
arise. Such an attitude of mind, however, is significant, 
not so much of a reverence for the Unknown Cause, as of an 
irreverence for those omnipresent forms in which the Un- 
known Cause is manifested to us^ Men who have not risen 
above that vulgar conception which unites with Matter the 
contemptuous epithets " gress " and " brute," may naturally 
enough feel dismay at the proposal to reduce the phenomena 
of Life, of Mind, and of Society, to a level with those which 
they think so degraded. But whoever remembers that the 
forms of existence which the uncultivated speak of with so 
much scorn, are not only shown by the man of science to be 
the more marvellous in their attributes the more they are 
investigated, but are also proved to be in their ultimate 
nature absolutely incomprehensible — as absolutely incom- 
prehensible as sensation, or the conscious something which 
perceives it — whoever fully realizes this truth, I say, will 
see that the course proposed does not imply a degradation 
of the so-called higher, but an elevation of the so-called 
lower. Perceiving, as he will, that the Materialist and 



THE CAUSES OF EVOLUTION. 223 

Spiritualist controversy is a mere war of words, in which 
the disputants are equally absurd — each thinking he under- 
stands that which it is impossible for any man to understand 
— he will perceive how utterly groundless is the fear referred 
to. Being fully convinced that whatever nomenclature is 
used, the ultimate mystery must remain the same, he will be 
as ready to formulate all phenomena in terms of Matter, Mo- 
tion, and Force, as in any other terms ; and will rather indeed 
anticipate, that only in a doctrine which recognizes the Un- 
known Cause as co-extensive with all orders of phenomena, 
can there be a consistent Religion, or a consistent Science. 7L»v£?t 

On the other hand, the conclusion that Evolution, consider- 
ed under its most abstract form, is a certain change in the 
arrangement of parts ; and that the causes of this change can 
be expressed only in terms of Matter, Motion, and Force ; 
may in critical minds raise the question — What are Matter, 
Motion, and Force? Referring back in thought to the reason- 
ings contained in the chapter on " Ultimate Scientific Ideas ; " 
and remembering how it was there shown that absolute know- 
ledge of Matter, Motion, and Force, is impossible; some 
readers will perhaps conclude that any such interpretation as 
the one above proposed, must be visionary. It may be asked 
— How can a comprehensible account of Evolution be given 
in terms that are themselves incomprehensible ? 

Before proceeding, this question must be met. There can 
be no sound philosophy without clearly defined terms ; and 
as, on the meanings of the terms to be here used, doubts have 
probably been cast by the reasonings contained in the chapter 
referred to, such doubts must be removed. If, as was shown, 
our ideas of things do not correspond with things in them- 
selves, it becomes necessary to inquire in what way they are 
to be accepted. If they are not absolutely true, then what is 
the exact meaning of the assertion that they are relatively 
true ? To this question let us now address ourselves. 



CHAPTER V. 

SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FOKCE. 

§ 61. That sceptical state of mind which the criticisms of 
Philosophy usually produce, is, in great measure, caused by 
the misinterpretation of words. A sense of universal illusion 
ordinarily follows the reading of metaphysics ; and is strong 
in proportion as the argument has appeared conclusive. This 
sense of universal illusion would probably never have arisen, 
had the terms used been always rightly construed. Unfor- 
tunately, these terms have by association acquired meanings 
that are quite different* from those given to them in philoso- 
phical discussions ; and the ordinary meanings being un- 
avoidably suggested, there results more or less of that dream- 
like idealism which is so incongruous with our instinctive 
convictions. The word phenomenon and its equivalent word 
appearance, are in great part to blame for this. In ordinary 
speech, these are uniformly employed in reference to visual 
perceptions. Habit, almost, if not quite, disables us from 
thinking of appearance except as something seen ; and though 
phenomenon has a more generalized meaning, yet we can- 
not rid it of associations with appearance, which is its verbal 
equivalent. "When, therefore, Philosophy proves that our 
knowledge of the external world can be but phenomenal — 
when it concludes that the things of which we are conscious 
are appearances ; it inevitably arouses in us the notion of an 
illusiveness like that to which our visual perceptions are so 
liable in comparison with our tactual perceptions. Good pic 



SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 225 

tures show us that the aspects of things may be very nearly 
simulated by colours on canvass. The looking-glass still more 
distinctly proves how deceptive is sight when unverified by 
touch. And the frequent cases in which we misinterpret the 
impressions made on our eyes, and think we see something 
which we do not see, further shake our faith in vision. So 
that the implication of uncertainty has infected the very word 
appearance. Hence, Philosophy, by giving it an extended 
meaning, leads us to think of all our senses as deceiving us in 
the same way that the eyes do ; and so makes us feel ourselves 
floating in a world of phantasms. Had phenomenon and ap- 
pearance no such misleading associations, little, if any, of this 
mental confusion would result. Or did we in place of them 
use the term effect, which is equally applicable to all impres- 
sions produced on consciousness through any of the senses, 
and which carries with it in thought the necessary correla- 
tive cause, with which it is equally real, we should be in little 
danger of falling into the insanities of idealism. 

Such danger as there might still remain, would disappear 
on making a further verbal correction. At present, the con- 
fusion resulting from the above misinterpretation, is made 
greater by an antithetical misinterpretation. We increase 
the seeming unreality of that phenomenal existence which 
we can alone know, by contrasting it with a noumenal exist- 
ence which we imagine would, if we could know it, be more 
truly real to us. But we delude ourselves with a verbal fic- 
tion. "What is the meaning of the word real ? This 
is the question which underlies every metaphysical inquiry ; 
and the neglect of it is the remaining cause of the chronic 
antagonisms of metaphysicians. In the interpretation put on 
the word real, the discussions of philosophy retain one ele- 
ment of the vulgar conception of things, while they reject all 
its other elements ; and create confusion by the inconsistency. 
The peasant, on contemplating an object, does not regard 
that which he contemplates as something in himself, but be- 
lieves the thing of which he is conscious to be the external 
11* 



226 SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 

object — imagines that his consciousness extends to the very- 
place where the object lies : to him the appearance and the 
reality are one and the same thing. The metaphysician, 
however, is convinced that consciousness cannot embrace the 
reality, but only the appearance of it ; and so he transfers the 
appearance into consciousness and leaves the reality outside. 
This reality left outside of consciousness, he continues to 
think of much in the same way as the ignorant man thinks 
of the appearance. Though the reality is asserted to be out 
of consciousness, yet the realness ascribed to it is constantly 
spoken of as though it were a knowledge possessed apart from 
consciousness. It seems to be forgotten that the conception of 
reality can be nothing more than some mode of consciousness; 
and that the question to be considered is — What is the rela- 
tion between this mode and other modes ? 

By reality we mean persistence in consciousness: a per- 
sistence that is either unconditional, as our consciousness of 
space, or that is conditional, as our consciousness of a body 
while grasping it. The real, as we conceive it, is distinguished 
solely by the test of persistence ; for by this test we separate 
it from what we call the unreal. Between a person standing 
before us, and the idea of such a person, we discriminate by 
our ability to expel the idea from consciousness, and our in- 
ability, while looking at him, to expel the person from con- 
sciousness. And when in doubt as to the validity or illusive- 
ness of some impression made upon us in the dusk, we settle 
the matter by observing whether the impression persists on 
closer observation ; and we predicate reality if the persistence 
is complete. How truly persistence is what we mean 

by reality, is shown in the fact that when, after criticism has 
proved that the real as we are conscious of it is not the ob- 
jectively real, the indefinite notion which we form of the ob- 
jectively real, is of something which persists absolutely, under 
all changes of mode, form, or appearance. And the fact that 
we cannot form even an indefinite notion of the absolutely 
real, except as the absolutely persistent, clearly implies that 



SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 227 

persistence is our ultimate test of the real as present to con- 
sciousness. 

Eeality then, as we think it, being nothing more than per- 
sistence in consciousness, the result must be the same to us 
whether that which we perceive be the Unconditioned itself, 
or an effect invariably wrought on us by the Unconditioned. 
If some mode of the Unconditioned uniformly produces some 
mode of consciousness — if the mode of consciousness so pro- 
duced, is as persistent as would be such mode of the Uncon- 
ditioned were it immediately known ; it follows that the 
reality will be to our consciousness as complete in the one case 
as in the other. Were the Unconditioned itself present in 
thought, it could but be persistent ; and if instead of it, there 
is present its persistent effect, the resulting consciousness of 
reality must be exactly the same. 

Hence there may be drawn these conclusions : — First, that 
we have an indefinite consciousness of an absolute reality 
transcending relations, which is produced by the absolute 
persistence in us of something which survives all changes of 
relation. Second, that we have a definite consciousness of 
relative reality, which unceasingly persists in us under one 
or other of its forms, and under each form so long as the con- 
ditions of presentation are fulfilled; and that the relative 
reality, being thus continuously persistent in us, is as real to 
us as would be the absolute reality could it be immediately 
known. Third, that thought being possible only under rela- 
tion, the relative reality can be conceived as such only in con- 
nexion with an absolute reality ; and the connexion between 
the two being absolutely persistent in our consciousness, is 
real in the same sense as the terms it unites are real. 

Thus then we may resume, with entire confidence, those 
realistic conceptions which philosophy at first sight seems to 
dissipate. Though reality under the forms of our conscious- 
ness, is but a conditioned effect of the absolute reality, yet 
this conditioned effect standing in indissoluble relation with 
its unconditioned cause, and being equally persistent with it 



228 SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 

so long as the conditions persist, is, to the consciousness sup- 
plying those conditions, equally real. The persistent impres- 
sions being the persistent results of a persistent cause, are for 
practical purposes the same to us as the cause itself ; and may 
be habitually dealt with as its equivalents. Somewhat in the 
same way that our visual perceptions, though merely symbols 
found to be the equivalents of tactual perceptions, are yet so 
identified with those tactual perceptions that we actually ap- 
pear to see the solidity and hardness which we do but infer, 
and thus conceive as objects what are only the signs of objects ; 
so, on a higher stage, do we deal with these relative realities 
as though they were absolutes instead of effects of the abso- 
lute. And we may legitimately continue so to deal with them 
as long as the conclusions to which they help us are understood 
as relative realities and not absolute ones. 

This general conclusion it now remains to interpret speci- 
fically, in its application to each of our ultimate scientific 
ideas. 

§ 62. * We think in relations. This is truly the form of 
all thought ; and if there are any other forms, they must be 
derived from this. "We have seen (Chap. iii. Part I.) that 
the several ultimate modes of being cannot be known or con- 
ceived as they exist in themselves ; that is, out of relation to 
our consciousness. We have seen, by analyzing the pro- 
duct of thought, (§ 23,) that it always consists of relations ; 
and cannot include anything beyond the most general of these. 
On analyzing the process of thought, we found that cogni- 
tion of the Absolute was impossible, because it presented 
neither relation, nor its elements — difference and likeness. 
Further, we found that not only Intelligence but Life itself, 
consists in the establishment of internal relations in corre- 
spondence with external relations. And lastly, it was shown 

* For the psychological conclusions briefly set forth in this and the three sec- 
tions following it, the justification mil be found in the writer's Principles of 
Psychology. 






SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 229 

that though by the relativity of our thought we are eternally 
debarred from knowing or conceiving Absolute Being ; yet 
that this very relativity of our thought, necessitates that vague 
consciousness of Absolute Being which no mental effort can 
suppress. That relation is the universal form of thought, is 
thus a truth, which all kinds of demonstration unite in 
proving. 

By the transcendentalists, certain other phenomena of con- 
sciousness are regarded as forms of thought. Presuming 
that relation would be admitted by them to be a universal 
mental form, they would class with it two others as also uni- 
versal. Were their hypothesis otherwise tenable however, it 
must still be rejected if such alleged further forms are inter- 
pretable as generated by the primary form. If we think in 
relations, and if relations have certain universal forms, it is 
manifest that such universal forms of relations will become 
universal forms of our consciousness. And if these further 
universal forms are thus explicable, it is superfluous, and 
therefore unphilosophical, to assign them an independent 
origin. Now relations are of two orders — relations 

of sequence, and relations of co-existence ; of which the one 
is original and the other derivative. The relation of sequence 
is given in every change of consciousness. The relation of 
co-existence, which cannot be originally given in a conscious- 
ness of which the states are serial, becomes distinguished only 
when it is found that certain relations of sequence have their 
terms presented in consciousness in either order with equal 
facility; while the others are presented only in one order. 
Eolations of which the terms are not reversible, become re- 
cognized as sequences proper ; while relations of which the 
terms occur indifferently in both directions, become recog- 
nized as co- existences. • Endless experiences, which from 
moment to moment present both orders of these relations, 
render the distinction between them perfectly definite ; 
and at the same time generate an abstract conception of 
each. The abstract of all sequences is Time. The abstract 



230 SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 

of all co-existences is Space. From the fact that in thought, 
Time is inseparable from sequence, and Space from co-exist- 
ence, we do not here infer that Time and Space are original 
conditions of consciousness under which, sequences and co- 
existences are known ; but we infer that our conceptions of 
Time and Space are generated, as other abstracts are gener- 
ated from other concretes : the only difference being, that 
the organization of experiences has, in these cases, been going 
on throughout the entire evolution of intelligence. 

This synthesis is confirmed by analysis. Our consciousness 
of Space is a consciousness of co-existent positions. Any lim- 
ited portion of space can be conceived only by representing its 
limits as co- existing in certain relative positions ; and each of 
its imagined boundaries, be it line or plane, can be thought of 
in no other way than as made up of co-existent positions in 
close proximity. And since a position is not an entity — since 
the congeries of positions which constitute any conceived por 
tion of space, and mark its bounds, are not sensible existences ; 
it follows that the co-existent positions which make up our 
consciousness of Space, are not co- existences in the full sense 
of the word (which implies realities as their terms), but are the 
blank forms of co-existences, left behind when the realities are 
absent ; that is, are the abstracts of co-existences. The 

experiences out of which, during the evolution of intel- 
ligence, this abstract of all co-existences has been generated, 
are experiences of individual positions as ascertained by touch ; 
and each of such, experiences involves the resistance of an ob- 
ject touched, and the muscular tension which measures this 
resistance. By countless unlike muscular adjustments, involving 
unlike muscular tensions, different resisting positions are dis- 
closed ; and these, as they can be experienced in one order as 
readily as another, we regard as co-existing. But since, un- 
der other circumstances, the same muscular adjustments do 
not produce contact with resisting positions, there result the 
same states of consciousness, minus the resistances — blank 
forms of co-existence from which the co-existent objects before 



SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 231 

experienced are absent And from a building up of these, too 
elaborate to be here detailed, results that abstract of all rela- 
tions of co-existence which we call Space, y It remains 
only to point out, as a thing which we must not forget, that 
the experiences from which the consciousness of Space arises, 
are experiences of force. A certain correlation of the muscu- 
lar forces we ourselves exercise, is the index of each position 
as originally disclosed to us ; and the resistance which makes 
us aware of something existing in that position, is an equi- 
valent of the pressure we consciously exert. Thus, experiences 
of forces variously correlated, are those from which our con- 
sciousness of Space is abstracted. 

That which we know as Space being thus shown, alike by 
its genesis and definition, to be purely relative, what are we 
to say of that which causes it ? Is there an absolute Space 
which relative Space in some sort represents ? Is Space in it- 
self a form or condition of absolute existence, producing in 
our minds a corresponding form or condition of relative exist- 
ence ? These are unanswerable questions. Our conception 
of Space is produced by some mode of the Unknowable ; and 
the complete unchangeableness of our conception of it simply 
implies a complete uniformity in the effects wrought by this 
mode of the Unknowable upon us. But therefore to call it a 
necessary mode of the Unknowable, is illegitimate. All we 
can assert is, that Space is a relative reality ; that our consci- 
ousness of this unchanging relative reality implies an absolute 
reality equally unchanging in so far as we are concerned ; 
and that the relative reality may be unhesitatingly accepted 
in thought as a valid basis for our reasonings ; which, when 
rightly carried on, will bring us to truths that have a like 
relative reality — the only truths which concern us or can 
possibly be known to us. 

Concerning Time, relative and absolute, a parallel argu- 
ment leads to parallel conclusions. These are too obvious to 
need specifying in detail. 



232 SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 

§ 63. Our conception of Matter, reduced to its simplest shape, 
is that of co-existent positions that offer resistance ; as con- 
trasted with our conception of Space, in which the co-existent 
positions offer no resistance. We think of Body as bounded 
by surfaces that resist ; and as made up throughout of parts 
that resist. Mentally abstract the co- existent resistances, and 
the consciousness of Body disappears ; leaving behind it the 
consciousness of Space. And since the group of co-existing 
resistent positions constituting a portion of matter, is uniform- 
ly capable of giving us impressions of resistance in combina- 
tion with various muscular adjustments, according as we 
touch its near, its remote, its right, or its left side ; it results 
that as different muscular adjustments habitually indicate dif- 
ferent co-existences, we are obliged to conceive every portion 
of matter as containing more than one resistent position — that 
is, as occupying Space. Hence the necessity we are under of 
representing to ourselves the ultimate elements of Matter as 
being at once extended and resistent : this being the univer- 
sal form of our sensible experiences of Matter, becomes the 
form which our conception of it cannot transcend, however 
minute the fragments which imaginary subdivisions pro- 
duce. Of these two inseparable elements, the resist- 
ance is primary, and the extension secondary. Occupied ex- 
tension, or Body, being distinguished in consciousness from 
unoccupied extension, or Space, by its resistance, this attribute 
must clearly have precedence in the genesis of the idea. Such a 
conclusion is, indeed, an obvious corollary from that at which 
we arrived in the foregoing section. If, as was there contend- 
ed, our consciousness of Space is a product of accumulated ex- 
periences, partly our own but chiefly ancestral — if, as was 
pointed out, the experiences from which our consciousness of 
Space is abstracted, can be received only through impressions 
of resistance made upon the organism ; the necessary inference 
is, that experiences of resistance being those from which the 
conception of Space is generated, the resistance-attribute of 
Matter must be regarded as primordial and the space-attribute 



SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 233 

as derivative. Whence it becomes manifest that our 

experience of force, is that out of which the idea of Matter is 
built. Matter as opposing our muscular energies, being im- 
mediately present to consciousness in terms of force ; and its 
occupancy of Space being known by an abstract of experiences 
originally given in terms of force; it follows that forces, 
standing in certain correlations, form the whole content of 
our idea of Matter. 

Such being our cognition of the relative reality, what are 
we to say of the absolute reality ? We can only say that it 
is some mode of the Unknowable, related to the Matter we 
know, as cause to effect. The relativity of our cognition of 
Matter is shown alike by the above analysis, and by the con- 
tradictions which are evolved when we deal with the cogni- 
tion as an absolute one (§ 16). But, as we have lately seen, 
though known to us only under relation, Matter is as real in 
the true sense of that word, as it would be could we know it 
out of relation ; and further, the relative reality which we 
know as Matter, is necessarily represented to the mind as 
standing in a persistent or real relation to the absolute real- 
ity. We may therefore deliver ourselves over with- 
out hesitation, to those terms of thought which experience has 
organized in us. We need not in our physical, chemical, 
or other researches, refrain from dealing with Matter as made 
up of extended and resistent atoms ; for this conception, ne- 
cessarily resulting from our experiences of Matter, is not less 
legitimate, than the conception of aggregate masses as extend- 
ed and resistent. The atomic hypothesis, as well as the kindred 
hypothesis of an all-pervading ether consisting of molecules, is 
simply a necessary development of those universal forms which 
the actions of the Unknowable have wrought in us. The con- 
clusions logically worked out by the aid of these hypotheses, are 
sure to be in harmony with all others which these same forms 
involve, and will have a relative truth that is equally complete. 

§ 64. The conception of Motion as presented or represented 



234 SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 

in the developed consciousness, involves the conceptions of 
Space, of Time, and of Matter. A something that moves ; a 
series of positions occupied in succession ; and a group of co- 
existent positions united in thought with the successive ones 
— these are the constituents of the idea. And since, as we 
have seen, these are severally elaborated from experiences of 
force as given in certain correlations, it follows that from a 
further synthesis of such experiences, the idea of Motion is 
also elaborated. A certain other element in the idea, which 
is in truth its fundamental element, (namely, the necessity 
which the moving body is under to go on changing its posi- 
tion), results immediately from the earliest experiences of force. 
Movements of different parts of the organism in relation to 
each other, are the first presented in consciousness. These, 
produced by the action of the muscles, necessitate reactions 
upon consciousness in the shape of sensations of muscular ten- 
sion. Consequently, each stretching-out or drawing-in of a 
limb, is originally known as a series of muscular tensions, 
varying in intensity as the position of the limb changes. And 
this rudimentary consciousness of Motion, consisting of serial 
impressions of force, becomes inseparably united with the 
consciousness of Space and Time as fast as these are abstract- 
ed from further impressions of force. Or rather, out of this 
primitive conception of Motion, the adult conception of it is 
developed simultaneously with the development of the con- 
ceptions of Space and Time : all three being evolved from the 
more multiplied and varied impressions of muscular tension 
and objective resistance. Motion, as we know it, is thus trace- 
able, in common with the other ultimate scientific ideas, to ex- 
periences of force. 

That this relative reality answers to some absolute reality, 
it is needful only for fornr's sake to assert. What has been 
said above, respecting the Unknown Cause which produces in 
us the effects called Matter, Space, and Time, will apply, on 
simply changing the terms, to Motion. 



SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 235 

§ 65. We come down then finally to Force, as the ultimate 
of ultimates. Though Space, Time, Matter, and Motion, are 
apparently all necessary data of intelligence, yet a psychologi- 
cal analysis (here indicated only in rude outline) shows us 
that these are either built up of, or abstracted from, experi- 
ences of Force. Matter and Motion, as we know them, are 
differently conditioned manifestations of Force. Space and 
Time, as we know them, are disclosed along with these differ- 
ent manifestations of Force as the conditions under which 
they are presented. Matter and Motion are concretes built 
up from the contents of various mental relations ; while Space 
and Time are abstracts of the forms of these various rela- 
tions. Deeper down than these, however, are the primordial 
experiences of Force, which, as occurring in consciousness 
in different combinations, supply at once the materials 
whence the forms of relations are generalized, and the re- 
lated objects built up. A single impression of force is 
manifestly receivable by a sentient being devoid of mental 
forms : grant but sensibility, with no established power of 
thought, and a force producing some nervous change, will 
still be presentable at the supposed seat of sensation. Though 
no single impression of force so received, could itself produce 
consciousness (which implies relations between different states), 
yet a multiplication of such impressions, differing in kind 
and degree, would give the materials for the establish- 
ment of relations, that is, of thought. And if such rela- 
tions differed in their forms as well as in their contents, 
the impressions of such forms would be organized simultane- 
ously with the impressions they contained. Thus all other 
modes of consciousness are derivable from experiences of 
Force ; but experiences of Force are not derivable from any- 
thing else. Indeed, it needs but to remember that conscious- 
ness consists of changes, to see that the ultimate datum of con- 
sciousness must be that of which change is the manifestation ; 
and that thus the force by which we ourselves produce changes, 



236 SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 

and which serves to symbolize the cause of changes in general, 
is the final disclosure of analysis. 

It is a truism to say that the nature of this undecomposable 
element of our knowledge is inscrutable. If, to use an algebraic 
illustration, we represent Matter, Motion, and Force, by the 
symbols x, y, and z ; then, we may ascertain the values of x 
and y in terms of z ; but the value of z can never be found : z 
is the unknown quantity which must for ever remain unknown ; 
for the obvious reason that there is nothing in which its value 
can be expressed. It is within the possible reach of our in- 
telligence to go on simplifying the equations of all phenomena, 
until the complex symbols which formulate them are reduced 
to certain functions of this ultimate symbol ; but when we 
have done this, we have reached that limit which eternally 
divides science from nescience. 

That this undecomposable mode of consciousness into 
which all other modes may be decomposed, cannot be itself 
the Power manifested to us through phenomena, has been 
already proved (§ 18). We saw that to assume an identity 
of nature between the cause of changes as it absolutely exists, 
and that cause of change of which we are conscious in our own 
muscular efforts, betrays us into alternative impossibilities of 
thought. Force, as we know it, can be regarded only as a 
certain conditioned effect of the Unconditioned Cause — as the 
relative reality indicating to us an Absolute Reality by which 
it is immediately produced. And here, indeed, we see even 
more clearly than before, how inevitable is that transfigured 
realism to which sceptical criticism finally brings us round. 
Getting rid of all complications, and contemplating pure 
Force, we are irresistibly compelled by the relativity of our 
thought, to vaguely conceive some unknown force as the 
correlative of the known force. Conditioned effect and un- 
conditioned cause, are here presented in their primordial rela- 
tion as two sides of the same change ; of which we are obliged 
to regard the conditioned and the unconditioned sides as 
equally real : the only difference being that the reality of 



SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 237 

the one is made relative by the imposition of the forms and 
limits of our consciousness, while the reality of the other, 
in the absence of those forms and limits, remains absolute. 

Thus much respecting the nature of our ultimate scientific 
ideas. Before proceeding to our general inquiry concerning 
the causes of Evolution, we have still to consider certain 
ultimate scientific truths. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER. 

§66. Not because the truth is unfamiliar, is it needful here 
to say something concerning the indestructibility of Matter 
but partly because the symmetry of our argument demands the 
enunciation of this truth, and partly because the evidence on 
which it is accepted requires examination, Could it be shown, 
or could it with any rationality be even supposed, that Matter, 
either in its aggregates or in its units, ever became non-exist- 
ent, there would be an end to the inquiry on which we are 
now setting out. Evolution, considered as a re-arrangement 
of parts, could not be scientifically explained, if, during its 
course, any of the parts might arise out of nothing or might 
lapse into nothing. The question would no longer be one 
comprehending only the forces and motions by which the 
re-arrangement is effected; but would involve an incalcul- 
able element, and would hence be insoluble. Clearly, there- 
fore, the indestructibility of Matter is an indispensable axiom. 

So far from being admitted as a self-evident truth, this 
would, in primitive times, have been rejected as a self-evident 
error. There was once universally current, a notion that things 
could vanish into absolute nothing, or arise out of absolute 
nothing. If we analyze early superstitions, or that faith in 
magic which was general in later times and even still sur- 
vives among the uncultured, we find one of its postulates to 
be, that by some potent spell Matter can be called out of non- 
entity, and can be made non-existent. If men did not believe 



THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER. 239 

this in the strict sense of the word (which would imply- 
that the process of creation or annihilation was clearly repre- 
sented in consciousness), they still believed that they believed 
it ; and how nearly, in their confused thoughts, the one was 
equivalent to the other, is shown by their conduct. Nor, in- 
deed, have dark ages and inferior minds alone betrayed this 
belief. The current theology, in its teachings respecting the 
beginning and end of the world, is clearly pervaded by it ; 
and it may be even questioned whether Shakespeare, in his 
poetical anticipation of a time when all things should disap- 
pear and " leave not a wrack behind/' was not under its in- 
fluence. The gradual accumulation of experiences 
however, and still more the organization of experiences, has 
tended slowly to reverse this conviction ; until now, the doc- 
trine that Matter is indestructible has become a common-place. 
Whatever may be true of it absolutely, we have learnt that 
relatively to our consciousness, Matter never either comes in- 
to existence or ceases to exist. Cases which once gave an 
apparent support to the illusion that something could come out 
of nothing, a wider knowledge has one by one cancelled. The 
comet that is all at once discovered in the heavens and nightly 
waxes larger, is proved not to be a newly-created body, but a 
body that was until lately beyond the range of vision. The 
cloud which in the course of a few minutes forms in the sky, con- 
sists not of substance that has just begun to be, but of substance 
that previously existed in a more diffused and transparent form. 
And similarly with a crystal or precipitate in relation to 
the fluid depositing it. Conversely, the seeming annihilations 
of Matter turn out, on closer observation, to be only changes 
of state. It is found that the evaporated water, though it has 
become invisible, may be brought by condensation to its ori- 
ginal shape. The discharged fowling-piece gives evidence 
that though the gunpowder has disappeared, there have ap- 
peared in place of it certain gases, which, in assuming a 
larger volume, have caused the explosion. Not, how- 
ever, until the rise of quantitative chemistry, could the conclu- 



240 THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTEP 






sion suggested by such experiences be reduced to a certainty. 
"When, having ascertained not only the combinations into 
which various substances enter, but also the proportions in 
which they combine, chemists were enabled to account for 
the matter that had made its appearance or become invisible, 
the proof was rendered complete. When, in place of the can- 
dle that had slowly burnt away, it was shown that certain cal- 
culable quantities of carbonic acid and water had resulted — 
when it was demonstrated that the joint weight of the car- 
bonic acid and water thus produced, was equal to the weight 
of the candle plus that of the oxygen uniting with its con- 
stituents during combustion ; it was put beyond doubt that 
the carbon and hydrogen forming the candle, were still in ex- 
istence, and had simply changed their state. And of the 
general conclusion thus exemplified, the exact analyses daily 
made, in which the same portion of matter is pursued through 
numerous transformations and finally separated, furnish 
never-ceasing confirmations. 

Such has become the effect of this specific evidence, joined 
to that general evidence which the continued existence of 
familiar objects unceasingly gives us; that the indestructibility 
of Matter is now recognized by many as a truth of which the 
negation is inconceivable. Habitual experiences being no 
longer met by any counter-experiences, as they once seemed 
to be ; but these apparent counter- experiences furnishing new 
proof that Matter exists permanently, even where the senses fail 
to detect it ; it has grown into an axiom of science, that what- 
ever metamorphoses Matter undergoes, its quantity is fixed. 
The chemist, the physicist, and the physiologist, not only 
one and all take this for granted, but would severally pro- 
fess themselves unable to realize any supposition to the 
contrary. 

§ 67. This last fact naturally raises the question, whether 
we have any higher warrant for this fundamental belief, than 
the warrant of conscious induction. The indestructibility of 



THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER. 241 

Matter is proved experimentally to be an absolute uniformity 
within the range of our experience. But absolute uniformities 
of experience, generate absolute uniformities of thought. 
Does it not follow, then, that this ultimate truth must be a 
cognition involved in our mental organization ? An affirma- 
tive answer we shall find unavoidable. 

"What is termed the ultimate incompressibility of Matter, 
is an admitted law of thought. Though it is possible to imagine 
a piece of matter to be compressed without limit, yet however 
small the bulk to which we conceive it reduced, it is im- 
possible to conceive it reduced into nothing. While we can 
represent to ourselves the parts of the matter as indefinitely 
approximated, and the space occupied as indefinitely decreased, 
we cannot represent to ourselves the quantity of matter as 
made less. To do this would imply an imagined disappear- 
ance of some of the constituent parts — would imply that 
some of the constituent parts were in thought compressed 
into nothing ; which is no more possible than the compression 
of the whole into nothing. Whence it is an obvious corollary, 
that the total quantity of matter in the Universe, cannot 
really be conceived as diminished, any more than it can be 
conceived as increased. ( 2&g ^j Our inability to conceive 
Matter becoming non-existent, is immediately consequent on 
the very nature of thought. Thought consists in the establish- 
ment of relations. There can be no relation established, and 
therefore no thought framed, when one of the related terms 
is absent from consciousness. Hence it is impossible to think 
of something becoming nothing, for the same reason that it is 
impossible to think of nothing becoming something — the 
reason, namely, that nothing cannot become an object of con- 
sciousness. The annihilation of Matter is unthinkable for 
the same reason that the creation of Matter is unthinkable ; 
and its indestructibility thus becomes an a priori cognition of 
the highest order — not one that results from a long continued 
registry of experiences gradually organized into an irrevers- 
12 



242 THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER. 

ible mode of thought ; but one that is given in the form of all 
experiences whatever. 

Doubtless it will be considered strange that a truth only 
in modern times accepted as unquestionable, and then only 
by men of science, should be classed as an a priori truth ; not 
only of equal certainty with those commonly so classed, but 
of even higher certainty. To set down as a proposition which 
cannot be thought, one which mankind once universally pro- 
fessed to think, and which the great majority profess to think 
even now, seems absurd. The explanation is, that in this, as 
in countless other cases, men have supposed themselves to 
think what they did not think. As was shown at the outset, 
the greater part of our conceptions are symbolic. Many of 
these symbolic conceptions, though rarely developed into real 
ones, admit of being so developed ; and, being directly or in- 
directly proved to correspond with actualities, are valid. But 
along with these there pass current others which cannot be 
developed — cannot by any direct or indirect process be realized 
in thought ; much less proved to correspond with actualities. 
Not being habitually tested, however, the legitimate and 
illegitimate symbolic conceptions are confounded together ; 
and supposing themselves to have literally thought, that 
which they have thought only symbolically, men say they be- 
lieve propositions of which the terms cannot even be put to- 
gether in consciousness. Hence the ready acceptance given 
to sundry hypotheses respecting the origin of the Universe, 
which yet are absolutely unthinkable. And as before we 
found the commonly asserted doctrine that Matter was created 
out of nothing, to have been never really conceived at all, 
but to have been conceived only symbolically ; so here we 
find the annihilation of Matter to have been conceived only 
symbolically, and the symbolic conception mistaken for a real 
one. Possibly it will be objected that the words 

thought, and belief, and conception, are here employed in 
new senses ; and that it is a misuse of language to say that 



THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER. 243 

men did not really think that which has nevertheless so pro- 
foundly influenced their conduct. It must be confessed that 
there is an inconvenience in so restricting the meanings of 
these words. There is no remedy however. Definite conclu- 
sions can be reached, only by the use of well-defined terms. 
Questions touching the validity of any portion of our know- 
ledge, cannot be profitably discussed unless the words knoiv- 
ing, and thinking, have specific interpretations. We must 
not include under them whatever confused processes of con- 
sciousness the popular speech applies them to ; but only the 
distinct processes of consciousness. And if this obliges us to 
reject a large part of human thinking as not thinking at all, 
but merely pseudo-thinking, there is no help for it. 

Returning to the general question, we find the results to 
be : — that we have positive experience of the continued ex- 
istence of Matter'; that the form of our thought renders it im- 
possible for us to have experience of Matter passing into non- 
existence, since such experience would involve cognition of a 
relation having one of its terms not representable in conscious- 
ness ; that hence the indestructibility of Matter is in strictness 
an a priori truth; that nevertheless, certain illusive experiences, 
suggesting the notion of its annihilation, have produced in 
undisciplined minds not only the supposition that Matter 
could be conceived to become non-existent, but the notion that 
it did so ; but that careful observation, showing the supposed 
annihilations to have never taken place, has confirmed, a 
posteriori, the a priori cognition which Psychology shows to 
result from a uniformity of experience that can never be met 
by counter-experience. 

§ 68. The fact, however, which it most concerns us here 
to observe, is, the nature of the perceptions by which the per- 
manence of Matter is perpetually illustrated to us, and from 
which Science draws the inference .that Matter is indestructi- 
ble. These perceptions, under all their forms, amount simply 
to this — that the force which a given quantity of matter ex- 



244 THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER. 

ercises, remains always the same. This is the proof on which 
common sense and exact science alike rely. When, 

for example, somebody known to haye existed a few years since 
is said to exist still, by one who yesterday saw him, his asser- 
tion amounts to this — that an object which in past time 
wrought on his consciousness a certain group of changes, still 
exists because a like group of changes has been again wrought 
on his consciousness : the continuance of the power thus to 
impress him, he holds to prove the continuance of the object. 
Should some auditor allege a mistake in identity, the witness 
is admitted to give conclusive proof when he says that he not 
only saw, but shook hands with this person, and remarked 
while grasping his hand, that absence of the index finger 
which was his known peculiarity : the implication being, that 
an object which through a special combination of forces, pro- 
duces special tactual impressions, is concluded still to exist 
while it continues still to do this. Even more clearly do we 
see that force is our ultimate measure of Matter, in those cases 
where the shape of the matter has been changed. A piece of 
gold given to an artizan to be worked into an ornament, and 
which when brought back appears to be less, is placed in the 
scales ; and if it balances a much smaller weight than it did 
in its rough state, we infer that much has been lost 
either in manipulation or by direct abstraction. Here the 
obvious postulate is, that the quantity of Matter is finally 
determinable by the quantity of gravitative force it mani- 
fests. And this is the kind of evidence on which 
Science bases its experimentally-established induction that 
Matter is indestructible. Whenever a piece of substance lately 
visible and tangible, has been reduced to an invisible, intangi- 
ble shape, but is proved by the weight of the gas into which 
it has been transformed to be still existing ; the assumption is, 
that though otherwise insensible to us, the amount of matter 
is the same, if it still tends towards the Earth with the same 
force. Similarly, every case in which the weight of an ele- 
ment present in combination, is inferred from the known 



THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER. 245 

weight of another element which it neutralizes, is a case in 
which the quantity of matter is expressed in terms of the 
quantity of chemical force it exerts ; and in which this speci- 
fic chemical force is assumed to be the necessary correlative of 
a specific gravitative force. 

Thus then by the indestructibility of Matter, we really mean 
the indestructibility of the force with which Matter affects us. 
As we become conscious of Matter only through that resistance 
which it opposes to our muscular energy, so do we become 
conscious of the permanence of Matter only through the per- 
manence of this resistance ; as either immediately or mediate- 
ly proved to us. And this truth is made manifest not only by 
analysis of the a posteriori cognition, but equally so by analysis 
of the a priori one. For that which we cannot conceive to be 
diminished by the continued compression of Matter, is not its 
occupancy of space, but its ability to resist. 



(, . 



*7 6 









CHAPTER Vn. 

THE CONTINUITY OF MOTION. 

§ 69. Another general truth of the same order with the 
foregoing, must here be specified — one which, though not so 
generally recognized, has yet long been familiar among men 
of science. The continuity of Motion, like the indestructi- 
bility of Matter, is clearly an axiom underlying the very 
possibility of a rational theory of Evolution. That kind of 
change in the arrangement of parts, which we have found to 
constitute Evolution, could not be deductively explained 
were it possible for Motion either to appear or disappear. If 
those motions through which the parts pass into a new 
arrangement, might either proceed from nothing or lapse 
into nothing, there would be an end to scientific interpreta- 
tion of them. Each constituent change might as well as not 
be supposed to begin and end of itself. 

The axiomatic character of the truth that Motion is con- 
tinuous, is recognized only after the discipline of exact 
science has given precision to the conceptions. Aboriginal 
men, our uneducated population, and even most of the so- 
called educated, think in an extremely indefinite manner. 
From careless observations, they pass by careless reasoning, 
to conclusions of which they do not contemplate the implica- 
tions — conclusions which they never develope for the purpose 
of seeing whether they are consistent. Accepting without 
criticism the dicta of unaided perception, to the effect that 
surrounding bodies when put in motion soon return to rest, 



THE CONTINUITY OF MOTION. 247 

the great majority tacitly assume that the motion is actually 
lost. They do not consider whether the phenomenon can be 
otherwise interpreted ; or whether the interpretation they 
put on it can be mentally realized. They are content with a 
colligation of mere appearances. But the establish- 

ment of certain facts having quite an opposite implication, 
led to inquiries which have gradually proved such appear- 
ances to be illusive. The discovery that the planets revolve 
round the Sun with undiminishing speed, raised the suspicion 
that a moving body, when not interfered with, will go on for 
ever without change of velocity ; and suggested the question 
whether bodies which lose their motion, do not at the same 
time communicate as much motion to other bodies. It was a 
familiar fact that a stone would glide further over a smooth 
surface, such as ice, presenting no small objects to which it 
could part with its motion by collision, than over a surface 
strewn with such small objects ; and that a projectile would 
travel a far greater distance through a rare medium like air, 
than through a dense medium like water. Thus the primitive 
notion that moving bodies had an inherent tendency gradu- 
ally to lose their motion and finally stop — a notion of which 
the Greeks did not get rid, but which lasted till the time of 
Galileo — began to give way. It was further shaken by such 
experiments as those of Hooke, which proved that the spin- 
ning of a top continued long in proportion as it was prevented 
from communicating movement to surrounding matter — ex- 
periments which, when repeated with the aid of modern ap- 
pliances, have shown that in vacuo such rotation, retarded 
only by the friction of the axis, will continue for nearly an 
hour. Thus have been gradually dispersed, the obstacles to 
the reception of the first law of motion ; — the law, namely, 
that when not influenced by external forces, a moving body 
will go on in a straight line with a uniform velocity. And 
this law is in our day being merged in the more general one, 
that Motion, like Matter, is indestructible ; and that what- 
ever is lost by any one portion of matter is transferred to 



248 THE CONTINUITY OF MOTION. 

other portions — a conclusion which, howeyer much at vari- 
ance it seems with cases of sudden arrest from collision with 
an immovable object, is yet reconciled with such cases by the 
discovery that the motion apparently lost continues under 
new forms, though forms not directly perceptible. 

§ 70. And here it may be remarked of Motion, as it was 
before of Matter, that its indestructibility is not only to be 
inductively inferred, but that it is a necessity of thought : its 
destructibility never having been truly conceived at all, but 
having always been, as it is now, a mere verbal proposi- 
tion that cannot be realized in consciousness — a pseud-idea. 
Whether that absolute reality which produces in us the con- 
sciousness we call Motion, be or be not an eternal mode of 
the Unknowable, it is impossible for us to say ; but that the 
relative reality which we call Motion never can come into 
existence, or cease to exist, is a truth involved in the very 
nature of our consciousness. To think of Motion as either 
being created or annihilated — to think of nothing becoming 
something, or something becoming nothing — is to establish 
in consciousness a relation between two terms of which one 
is absent from consciousness, which is impossible. The very 
nature of intelligence, negatives the supposition that Motion 
can be conceived (much less known) to either commence or 
cease. 

§ 71. It remains to be pointed out that the continuity of 
Motion, as well as the indestructibility of Matter, is really 
known to us in terms of force. That a certain manifestation 
of force remains for ever undiminished, is the ultimate con- 
tent of the thought ; whether reached a posteriori or a priori. 

From terrestrial physics let us take the case of sound pro- 
pagated to a great distance. Whenever we are directly con- 
scious of the causation of sound (namely, when we produce it 
ourselves), its invariable antecedent is force. The immediate 
sequence of this force we know to be motion — first, of our 



THE CONTINUITY OF MOTION. 249 

own organs, and then of the body which we set vibrating. 
The vibrations so generated we can discern both through the 
fingers and through the ears ; and that the sensations re- 
ceived by the ears are the equivalents of mechanical force 
communicated to the air, and by it impressed on surrounding 
objects, we have clear proof when objects are fractured : as 
windows by the report of a cannon ; or a glass vessel by a 
powerful voice. On what, then, rests the reasoning when, as 
occasionally happens under favourable circumstances, men 
on board a vessel a hundred miles from shore, hear the ring- 
ing of church-bells on placing their ears in the focus of the 
main sail ; and when it is inferred that atmospheric undula- 
tions have traversed this immense distance ? Manifestly, the 
assertion that the motion of the clapper, transformed into the 
vibrations of the bell, and communicated to the surrounding 
air, has propagated itself thus far on all sides, diminishing in 
intensity as the mass of air moved became greater, is based 
solely upon a certain change produced in consciousness 
through the ears. The listeners are not conscious of motion ; 
they are conscious of an impression produced on them— an 
impression which implies a force as its necessary correlative. 
"With force they begin, and with force they end : the inter- 
mediate motion being simply inferred. Again, where, 
as in celestial physics, the continuity of motion is quantitative- 
ly proved, the proof is not direct but inferential ; and forces 
furnish the data for the inference. A particular planet can 
be identified only by its constant power to affect our visual 
organs in a special way — to impress upon the retina a group 
of forces standing in a particular correlation. Further, such 
planet has not been seen to move by the astronomical ob- 
server ; but its motion is inferred from a comparison of its pre- 
sent position with the position it before occupied. If rigorously 
examined, this comparison proves to be a comparison between 
the different impressions produced on him by the different ad- 
justments of the observing instruments. Going a step further 
back, it turns out that this difference is meaningless until 
12* 



250 THE CONTINUITY OF MOTION. 

shown to correspond with a certain calculated position which 
the planet must occupy, supposing that no motion has been 
lost. And if, finally, we examine the implied calculation, 
we find that it makes allowances for those accelerations and 
retardations which ellipticity of the orbit involves, as well as 
those variations of velocity caused by adjacent planets — we 
find, that is, that the motion is concluded to be indestruc- 
tible not from the uniform velocity of the planet, but from 
the constant quantity of motion exhibited when allowance is 
made for the motion communicated to, or received from, other 
celestial bodies. And when we ask how this communicated 
motion is estimated, we discover that the estimate is based 
upon certain laws of force ; which laws, one and all, embody 
the postulate that force cannot be destroyed. Without the 
axiom that action and re- action are equal and opposite, astro- 
nomy could not make its exact predictions ; and we should 
lack the rigorous inductive proof they furnish that motion 
can never be lost, but can only be transferred. 

Similarly with the a priori conclusion that Motion is con- 
tinuous. That which defies suppression in thought, is really 
the force which the motion indicates. The unceasing change 
of position, considered by itself, may be mentally abolished 
without difficulty. We can readily imagine retardation and 
stoppage to result from the action of external bodies. But 
to imagine this, is not possible without an abstraction of the 
force implied by the motion. We are obliged to conceive 
this force as impressed in the shape of re- action on the bodies 
that cause the arrest. And the motion that is communicated 
to them, we are compelled to regard, not as directly commu- 
nicated, but as a product of the communicated force. We 
can mentally diminish the velocity or space- element of 
motion, by diffusing the momentum or force-element over 
a larger mass of matter ; but the quantity of this force- element, 
which we regard as the cause of the motion, is unchangeable 
in thought. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE PERSISTENCE OF FORCE.* 

§ 72. Before taking a first step in the rational interpretation 
of Evolution, it is needful to recognize, not only the facts that 
Matter is indestructible and Motion continuous, but also the 
fact that Force persists. An attempt to assign the causes of 
Evolution, would manifestly be absurd, if that agency to which 
the metamorphosis in general and in detail is due, could either 
come into existence or cease to exist. The succession of phe- 
nomena would in such case be altogether arbitrary ; and de- 
ductive science impossible. 

Here, indeed, the necessity is even more imperative than in 
the two preceding cases. For the validity of the proofs given 
that Matter is indestructible and Motion continuous, really 
depends upon the validity of the proof that Force is persistent. 
An analysis of the^ reasoning demonstrated that in both cases, 
the a posteriori conclusion involves the assumption that un- 
changed quantities of Matter and Motion are proved by un- 
changed manifestations of Force ; and in the a priori cognition 

« 

* Some two years ago, I expressed to my friend Professor Huxley, my dissa- 
tisfaction with the current expression — "Conservation of Force;" assigning as 
reasons, first, that the word "conservation" implies a conserver and an act 
of conserving ; and, second, that it does not imply the existence of the force hefore 
that particular manifestation of it with which we commence. In place of " con- 
servation," Professor Huxley suggested persistence. This entirely meets the first 
of the two objections ; and though the second may be urged against it, no other 
word less faulty in this respect can be found. In the absence of a word specially 
coined for the purpose, it seems the bost ; and as such I adopt it. 



252 THE PERSISTENCE OF FORCE. 

we found this to be the essential constituent. Hence, that the 
quantity of Force remains always the same, is the fundamental 
cognition in the absence of which these derivative cognitions 
must disappear. 

§ 73. But now on what grounds do we assert the persistence 
of Force ? Inductively we can allege no evidence except such 
as is presented to us throughout the world of sensible pheno- 
mena. No force however, save that of which we are conscious 
during our own muscular efforts, is immediately known to us. 
All other force is mediately known through the changes we 
attribute to it. Since, then, we cannot infer the persistence 
of Force from our own sensation of it, which does not persist ; 
we must infer it, if it is inferred at all, from the continuity of 
Motion, and the undiminished ability of Matter to produce cer- 
tain effects. But to reason thus is manifestly to reason in a 
circle. It is absurd to allege the indestructibility of Matter, 
because we find experimentally that under whatever changes of 
form a given mass of matter exhibits the same gravitation, and 
then afterwards to argue that gravitation is constant because 
a given mass of matter exhibits always the same quantity of 
it. We cannot prove the continuity of Motion by assuming 
that Force is persistent, and then prove the persistence of Force 
by assuming that Motion is continuous. 

The data of both objective and subjective science being in- 
volved in this question touching the nature of our cognition that 
Force is persistent, it will be desirable here to examine it more 
closely. At the risk of trying the reader's patience, we must 
reconsider the reasoning through which the indestructibility of 
Matter and the continuity of Motion are established ; that we 
may see how impossible it is to arrive by parallel reasoning at 
the persistence of Force. In all three cases the ques- 

tion is one of quantity : — does the Matter, or Motion, or Force, 
ever diminish in quantity ? Quantitative science implies mea- 
surement ; and measurement implies a unit of measure. The 
units of measure from which all others of any exactness are de- 



THE PERSISTENCE OF FORCE. 253 

rived, are units of linear extension. From these, through the 
medium of the equal- armed lever or scales, we derive our equal 
units of weight, or gravitative force. And it is by means of these 
equal units of extension and equal units of weight, that we make 
those quantitative comparisons by which the truths of exact 
science are reached. Throughout the investigations leading 
the chemist to the conclusion that of the carbon which has dis- 
appeared during combustion, no portion has been lost, and that 
in any compound afterwards formed by the resulting carbonic 
acid the whole of the original carbon is present, what is his 
repeatedly assigned proof ? That afforded by the scales. In 
what terms is the verdict of the scales given ? In grains — in 
units of weight — in units of gravitative force. And what is 
the total content of the verdict ? That as many units of gra- 
vitative force as the carbon exhibited at first, it exhibits still. 
The quantity of matter is asserted to be the same, if the num- 
ber of units of force it counter-balances is the same. The va- 
lidity of the inference, then, depends entirely upon the con- 
stancy of the units of force. If the force with which the portion 
of metal called a grain- weight, tends towards the Earth, has 
varied, the inference that Matter is indestructible is vicious. 
Everything turns on the truth of the assumption that the gra- 
vitation of the weights is persistent ; and of this no proof is 
assigned, or can be assigned. In the reasonings of 

the astronomer there is a like implication ; from which we 
may draw the like conclusion. No problem in celestial phy- 
sics can be solved without the assumption of some unit of force. 
This unit need not be, like a pound or a ton, one of which we 
can take direct cognizance. It is requisite only that the mu- 
tual attraction which some two of the bodies concerned exer- 
cise at a given distance, should be taken as one ; so that the 
other attractions with which the problem deals, may be ex- 
pressed in terms of this one. Such unit being assumed, the 
momenta which the respective masses will generate in each 
other in a given time, are calculated ; and compounding 
these with the momenta they already have, their places at the 



254 THE PERSISTENCE OF FORCE. 

end of that time are predicted. The prediction is verified by 
observation. From this, either of two inferences may be drawn. 
Assuming the masses to be fixed, the motion may be proved 
to be undiminished ; or assuming the motion to be undiminish- 
ed, the masses may be proved to be fixed. But the validity of 
one or other inference, depends wholly on the truth of the as- 
sumption that the unit of force is unchanged. Let it be sup- 
posed that the gravitation of the two bodies towards each 
other at the given distance, has varied, and the conclusions 
drawn are no longer true. ISTor is it only in their 

concrete data that the reasonings of terrestrial and celestial 
physics assume the persistence of Force. They equally assume 
it in the abstract principle with which they set out ; and which 
they repeat in justification of every step. The equality of ac- 
tion and reaction is taken for granted from beginning to end 
of either argument ; and to assert that action and reaction 
are equal and opposite, is to assert that Force is persistent. 
The allegation really amounts to this, that there cannot be an 
isolated force beginning and ending in nothing ; but that 
any force manifested, implies an equal antecedent force from 
whicn it is derived, and against which it is a reaction. Further, 
that the force so originating cannot disappear without result ; 
but must expend itself in some other manifestation of force, 
which, in being produced, becomes its reaction ; and so on 
continually. Clearly then the persistence of Force is an 
ultimate truth of which no inductive proof is possible. 

"We might indeed be certain, even in the absence of any 
such analysis as the foregoing, that there must exist some 
principle which, as being the basis of science, cannot be 
established by science. All reasoned-out conclusions what- 
ever, must rest on some postulate. As before shown (§ 23), we 
cannot go on merging derivative truths in those wider and 
wider truths from which they are derived, without reaching 
at last a widest truth which can be merged in no other, or 
derived from no other. And whoever contemplates the rela- 
tion in which it stands to the truths of science in general, will 



THE PERSISTENCE OF FORCE. 255 

see that this truth transcending demonstration is the per- 
sistence of Force. 

§ 74. But now what is the force of which we predicate 
persistence ? It is not the force we are immediately conscious 
of in our own muscular efforts ; for this does not persist. As 
soon as an outstretched limb is relaxed, the sense of tension 
disappears. True, we assert that in the stone thrown or in the 
weight lifted, is exhibited the effect of this muscular tension ; 
and that the force which has ceased to be present in our con- 
sciousness, exists elsewhere. But it does not exist elsewhere 
under any form cognizable by us. It was proved (§ 18), 
that though, on raising an object from the ground, we are 
obliged to think of its downward pull as equal and opposite 
to our upward pull ; and though it is impossible to represent 
these pulls as equal without representing them as like in 
kind ; yet, since their likeness in kind would imply in the 
object a sensation of muscular tension, which cannot be 
ascribed to it, we are compelled to admit that force as it 
exists out of our consciousness, is not force as we know it. 
Hence the force of which we assert persistence is that Absolute 
Force of which we are indefinitely conscious as the necessary 
correlate of the force we know. Thus, by the persist- 

ence of Force, we really mean the persistence of some Power 
which transcends our knowledge and conception. The mani- 
festations, as occurring either in ourselves or outside of us, do 
not persist; but that which persists is the Unknown Cause 
of these manifestations. In other words, asserting the 
persistence of Force, is but another mode of asserting an 
Unconditioned Reality, without beginning or end. 

Thus, quite unexpectedly, we come down once more to 
that ultimate truth in which, as we saw, Religion and 
Science coalesce. On examining the data underlying a 
rational theory of Evolution, we find them all at last re- 
solvable into that datum without which consciousness was 
shown to be impossible — the continued existence of an Un- 



256 THE PERSISTENCE OF FORCE. 

knowable as the necessary correlative of the Knowable. Once 
commenced, the analysis of the truths taken for granted in 
scientific inquiries, inevitably brings us down to this deepest 
truth, in which Common Sense and Philosophy are re- 
conciled. 

The arguments and conclusion contained in this and the 
foregoing three chapters, supply, indeed, the complement to 
the arguments and conclusion set forth in the preceding part 
of this work. It was there first shown, by an examination of 
our ultimate religious ideas, that knowledge of Absolute Being 
is impossible ; and the impossibility of knowing Absolute 
Being, was also shown by an examination of our ultimate 
scientific ideas. In a succeeding chapter a subjective analysis 
proved, that while, by the very conditions of thought, we are 
prevented from knowing anything beyond relative being ; yet 
that by these very same conditions of thought, an indefinite 
consciousness of Absolute Being is necessitated. And here, 
by objective analysis, we similarly find that the axiomatic 
truths of physical science, unavoidably postulate Absolute 
Being as their common basis. 

Thus there is even a more profound agreement between 
Religion and Science than was before shown. Not only are 
they wholly at one on the negative proposition that the Non- 
relative cannot be known ; but they are wholly at one on the 
positive proposition that the Non-relative is an actual existence. 
Both are obliged by the demonstrated untenability of their 
supposed cognitions, to confess that the Ultimate Reality is in- 
cognizable ; and yet both are obliged to assert the existence of 
an Ultimate Reality. "Without this, Religion has no subject- 
matter ; and without this, Science, subjective and objective, 
lacks its indispensable datum. We cannot construct a theory 
of internal phenomena without postulating Absolute Being ; 
and unless we postulate Absolute Being, or being which per- 
sists, we cannot construct a theory of external phenomena. 

§ 75. A few words must be added respecting the nature 



THE PERSISTENCE OF FORCE. 257 

of this fundamental consciousness. Already it has been looked 
at from several points of view ; and here it seems needful 
finally to sum up the results. 

In Chapter IV. we saw that the Unknown Power of 
which neither beginning nor end can be conceived, is pre- 
sent to us as that unshaped material of consciousness which 
is shaped afresh in every thought. Our inability to conceive 
its limitation, is thus simply the obverse of our inability to 
put an end to the thinking subject while still continuing to 
think. In the two foregoing chapters, we contemplated 

this fundamental truth under another aspect. The indestruc- 
tibility of Matter and the continuity of Motion, we saw to be 
really corollaries from the impossibility of establishing in 
thought a relation between something and nothing. What 
we call the establishment of a relation in thought, is the pas- 
sage of the substance of consciousness, from one form into an- 
other. To think of something becoming nothing, would in- 
volve that this substance of consciousness having just existed 
under a given form, should next assume no form ; or should 
cease to be consciousness. And thus our inability to conceive 
Matter and Motion destroyed, is our inability to suppress con- 
sciousness itself. What, in these two foregoing chap- 
ters, was proved true of Matter and Motion, is, a fortiori, true 
of the Force out of which our conceptions of Matter and Motion 
are built. Indeed, as we saw, that which is indestructible in 
matter and motion, is the force they present. And, as we 
here see, the truth that Force is indestructible, is the obverse 
of the truth that the Unknown Cause of the changes going on 
in consciousness is indestructible. So that the persistence of 
consciousness, constitutes at once our immediate experience of 
the persistence of Force, and imposes on us the necessity we 
are under of asserting its persistence. 

§ 76. Thus, in all ways there is forced on us the fact, that 
here is an ultimate truth given in our mental constitution. 
It is not only a datum of science, but it is a datum which even 



258 THE PERSISTENCE OF FORCE. 

the assertion of our nescience involves. Whoever alleges that 
the inability to conceive a beginning or end of the Universe, 
is a negative result of our mental structure, cannot deny that 
our consciousness of the Universe as persistent, is a positive re- 
sult of our mental structure. And this persistence of the 
Universe, is the persistence of that Unknown Cause, Power, or 
Force, which is manifested to us through all phenomena. 

Such then is the foundation of any possible system of posi- 
tive knowledge. Deeper than demonstration — deeper even 
than definite cognition — deep as the very nature of mind, is 
the postulate at which we have arrived. Its authority tran- 
scends all other whatever ; for not only is it given in the con- 
stitution of our own consciousness, but it is impossible to 
imagine a consciousness so constituted as not to give it. 
Thought, involving simply the establishment of relations, may 
be readily conceived to go on while yet these relations have 
not been organized into the abstracts we call Space and Time ; 
and so there is a conceivable kind of consciousness which 
does not contain the truths, commonly called a priori, in- 
volved in the organization of these forms of relations. But 
thought cannot be conceived to go on without some ele- 
ment between which its relations may be established ; and 
so there is no conceivable kind of consciousness which does 
not imply continued existence as its datum. Consciousness 
without this or that particular form is possible ; but con- 
sciousness without contents is impossible. 

The sole truth which transcends experience by underlying 
it, is thus the persistence of Force. This being the basis of ex- 
perience, must be the basis of any scientific organization of ex- 
periences. To this an ultimate analysis brings us down ; and 
on this a rational synthesis must build up. 






CHAPTER IX. 

THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 

§ 77. "When, to the unaided senses, Science began to add 
supplementary senses in the shape of measuring instruments, 
men began to perceive various phenomena which eyes and 
fingers could not distinguish. Of known forms of force, 
minuter manifestations became appreciable ; and forms of 
force before unknown were rendered cognizable and measure- 
able. Where forces had apparently ended in nothing, and 
had been carelessly supposed to have actually done so, instru- 
mental observation proved that effects had in every instance 
been produced : the forces reappearing in new shapes. 
Hence there has at length arisen the inquiry whether the 
force displayed in each surrounding change, does not in the 
act of expenditure undergo metamorphosis into an equivalent 
amount of some other force or forces. And to this inquiry 
experiment is giving an affirmative answer, which becomes 
day by day more decisive. Grove, Helmholtz, and Meyer, 
are more than any others to be credited with the clear enunci- 
ation of this doctrine. Let us glance at the evidence on 
which it rests. 

Motion, wherever we can directly trace its genesis, we find 
to pre-exist as some other mode of force. Our own volun- 
tary acts have always certain sensations of muscular 
tension as their antecedents. When, as in letting fall a re- 
laxed limb, we are conscious of a bodily movement requiring 
no effort, the explanation is that the effort was exerted in 



260 THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 

raising the limb to the position whence it fell. In this case, 
as in the case of an inanimate body descending to the Earth, 
the force accumulated by the downward motion is just equal 
to the force previously expended in the act of eleva- 
tion. Conversely, Motion that is arrested produces, 
under different circumstances, heat, electricity, magnetism, 
light. From the warming of the hands by rubbing them 
together, up to the ignition of a railway-brake by intense 
friction — from the lighting of detonating powder by percus- 
sion, up to the setting on fire a block of wood by a few blows 
from a steam-hammer ; we have abundant instances in which 
heat arises as Motion ceases. It is uniformly foimd, that the 
heat generated is great in proportion as the Motion lost is 
great ; and that to diminish the arrest of motion, by di- 
minishing the friction, is to diminish the quantity of heat 
evolved. The production of electricity by Motion is illus- 
trated equally in the boy's experiment with rubbed sealing- 
wax, in the common electrical machine, and in the apparatus 
for exciting electricity by the escape of steam. Wherever 
there is friction between heterogeneous bodies, electrical dis- 
turbance is one of the consequences. Magnetism may result 
from Motion either immediately, as through percussion on 
iron, or mediately as through electric currents previously 
generated by Motion. And similarly, Motion may create 
light; either directly, as in the minute incandescent frag- 
ments struck off by violent collisions, or indirectly, as 
through the electric spark. " Lastly, Motion may be again 
reproduced by the forces which have emanated from Motion ; 
thus, the divergence of the electrometer, the revolution of 
the electrical wheel, the deflection of the magnetic needle, 
are, when resulting from frictional electricity, palpable move- 
ments reproduced by the intermediate modes of force, which 
have themselves been originated by motion/ ' 

That mode of force which, we distinguish as Heat, is now 
generally regarded by physicists as molecular motion — not 
motion as displayed in the changed relations of sensible 



THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 261 

masses to each other, but as occurring among the units of 
which such sensible masses consist. If we cease to think of 
Heat as that particular sensation given to us by bodies in 
certain conditions, and consider the phenomena otherwise 
presented by these bodies, we find that motion, either in 
them or in surrounding bodies, or in both, is all that 
we have evidence of. With one or two exceptions which are 
obstacles to every theory of Heat, heated bodies expand ; and 
expansion can be interpreted only as a movement of the units 
of a mass in relation to each other. That so-called radia- 
tion through which anything of higher temperature than 
things around it, communicates Heat to them, is clearly a 
species of motion. Moreover, the evidence afforded by the 
thermometer that Heat thus diffuses itself, is simply a move- 
ment caused in the mercurial column. And that the molecular 
motion which we call Heat, may be transformed into visible 
motion, familiar proof is given by the steam-engine ; in 
which " the piston and all its concomitant masses of matter 
are moved by the molecular dilation of the vapour of 
water." Where Heat is absorbed without apparent 

result, modern inquiries show that decided though unob- 
trusive changes are produced : as on glass, the molecular 
state of which is so far changed by heat, that a polarized ray 
of light passing through it becomes visible, which it does not 
do when the glass is cold ; or as on polished metallic surfaces, 
which are so far changed in structure by thermal radiations 
from objects very close to them, as to retain permanent im- 
pressions of such objects. The transformation of Heat into 
electricity, occurs when dissimilar metals touching each other 
are heated at the point of contact : electric currents being so 
induced. Solid, incombustible matter introduced into heated 
gas, as lime into the oxy-hydrogen flame, becomes incande- 
scent ; and so exhibits the conversion of Heat into light, 
The production of magnetism by Heat, if it cannot be proved 
to take place directly, may be proved to take place indirectly 
through the medium of electricity. And through the same 



262 THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 

medium may be established the correlation of Heat and 
chemical affinity — a correlation which is indeed implied by 
the marked influence that Heat exercises on chemical com- 
position and decomposition. 

The transformations of Electricity into other modes of 
force, are still more clearly demonstrable. Produced by the 
motion of heterogeneous bodies in contact, Electricity, through 
attractions and repulsions, will immediately reproduce motion 
in neighbouring bodies. Now a current of Electricity gener- 
ates magnetism in a bar of soft iron ; and now the rotation 
of a permanent magnet generates currents of Electricity. 
Here we have a battery in which from the play of chemical 
affinities an electric current results ; and there, in the 
adjacent cell, we have an electric current effecting chemical 
decomposition. In the conducting wire we witness the 
transformation of Electricity into heat ; while in electric 
sparks and in the voltaic arc we see light produced. Atomic 
arrangement, too, is changed by Electricity : as instance 
the transfer of matter from pole to pole of a battery ; the 
fractures caused by the disruptive discharge ; the formation 
of crystals under the influence of electric currents. And 
whether, conversely, Electricity be or be not directly gener- 
ated by re- arrangement of the atoms of matter, it is at any 
rate indirectly so generated through the intermediation of 
magnetism. 

How from Magnetism the other physical forces result, 
must be next briefly noted — briefly, because in each succes- 
sive case the illustrations become in great part the obverse 
forms of those before given. That Magnetism produces 
motion is the ordinary evidence we have of its existence. In 
the magneto-electric machine we see a rotating magnet 
evolving electricity. And the electricity so evolved may 
immediately after exhibit itself as heat, light, or chemical 
affinity. Faraday's discovery of the effect of Magnetism on 
polarized light, as well as the discovery that change of mag- 
netic state is accompanied by heat, point to further like con- 



THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 263 

nexions. Lastly, various experiments show that the mag- 
netization of a body alters its internal structure ; and that 
conversely, the alteration of its internal structure, as by 
mechanical strain, alters its magnetic condition. 

Improbable as it seemed, it is now proved that from Light 
also may proceed the like variety of agencies. The solar rays 
change the atomic arrangements of particular crystals. 
Certain mixed gases, which do not otherwise combine, com- 
bine in the sunshine. In some compounds Light pro- 
duces decomposition. Since the inquiries of photographers 
have drawn attention to the subject, it has been shown that 
"a vast number of substances, both elementary and com- 
pound, are notably affected by this agent, even those ap- 
parently the most unalterable in character, such as metals. " 
And when a daguerreotype plate is connected with a proper 
apparatus " we get chemical action on the plate, electricity 
circulating through the wires, magnetism in the coil, heat in 
the helix, and motion in the needles." 

The genesis of all other modes of force from Chemical 
Action, scarcely needs pointing out. The ordinary accom- 
paniment of chemical combination is heat ; and when the 
affinities are intense, light also is, under fit conditions, pro- 
duced. Chemical changes involving alteration of bulk, cause 
motion, both in the combining elements and in adjacent 
masses of matter : witness the propulsion of a bullet by the 
explosion of gun-powder. In the galvanic battery we see 
electricity resulting from chemical composition and decom- 
position. While through the medium of this electricity, 
Chemical Action produces magnetism. 

These facts, the larger part of which are culled from Mr. 
Grove's work on " The Correlation of Physical Forces," show 
us that each force is transformable, directly or indirectly, 
into the others. In every change Force undergoes meta- 
morphosis ; and from the new form or forms it assumes, may 
subsequently result either the previous one or any of the 
rest, in endless variety of order and combination. It is 



264 THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 

further becoming manifest that the physical forces stand not 
simply in qualitative correlations with each other, but also in 
quantitative correlations. Besides proving that one mode of 
force may be transformed into another mode, experiments 
illustrate the truth that from a definite amount of one, defi- 
nite amounts of others always arise. Ordinarily it is in- 
deed difficult to show this ; since it mostly happens that the 
transformation of any force is not into some one of the rest 
but into several of them : the proportions being determined 
by the ever-varying conditions. But in certain cases, posi- 
tive results have been reached. Mr. Joule has ascertained 
that the fall of 772 lbs. through one foot, will raise the 
temperature of a pound of water one degree of Fahrenheit. 
The investigations of Dulong, Petit and Neumann, have 
proved a relation in amount between the affinities of combin- 
ing bodies and the heat evolved during their combination. Be- 
tween chemical action and voltaic electricity, a quantitative 
connexion has also been established : Faraday's experiments 
implying that a specific measure of electricity is disengaged 
by a given measure of chemical action. The well- determined 
relations between the quantities of heat generated and water 
turned into steam, or still better the known expansion pro- 
duced in steam by each additional degree of heat, may be 
cited in further evidence. Whence it is no longer doubted 
that among the several forms which force assumes, the 
quantitative relations are fixed. The conclusion tacitly 
agreed on by physicists, is, not only that the physical forces 
undergo metamorphoses, but that a certain amount of each is 
the constant equivalent of certain amounts of the others. 

§ 78. Throughout Evolution under all its phases, this truth 
of course invariably holds. Every successive change or 
group of changes forming part of it, is of necessity limited 
by the conditions thus implied. The forces which any step 
in Evolution exhibits, must be affiliable on the like or unlike 
forces previously existing ; while from the forces so generated 



THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 265 

must thereafter be derived others more or less transformed. 
And besides recognizing the forces at any time existing, as 
necessarily linked with those preceding and succeeding them, 
we must also recognize the - amounts of these forces suc- 
cessively manifested as determinate, — as necessarily pro- 
ducing such and such quantities of results, and as necessarily 
limited to those quantities. 

Involved as are the phenomena of Evolution, it is not to be 
expected that a definite quantitative relation can in each case, 
or indeed in any case, be shown between the forces expended 
in successive phases. We have not adequate data for this ; 
and probably shall never have them. The antecedents of 
the simpler forms of Evolution, belong to a remote past re- 
specting which we can have nothing but inferential know- 
ledge ; while the antecedents of the only kind of Evolution 
which is traceable from beginning to end (namely, that of 
individual organisms) are too complex to be dealt with by 
exact methods. Hence we cannot hope to establish equiva- 
lence among the successive manifestations of force which each 
order of Evolution affords. The most we can hope is to 
establish a qualitative correlation that is indefinitely quanti- 
tative — quantitative in so far as involving something like a due 
proportion between causes and effects. If this can be done, 
however, some progress will be made towards the solution of 
our problem. Though it may be beyond our power to show 
a measurable relation between the force or group of forces 
which any phase of Evolution displays, and the force or group 
of forces immediately succeeding it ; yet if we can show that 
there always are antecedent forces, and that the effects they 
produce always become the antecedents of further ones — if 
while unable to calculate how much of each change will be 
produced, we can prove that a change of that kind was neces- 
sitated — if we can discern even the vaguest correspondence 
between the amount of such change and the amount of the 
pre-existing force ; we shall advance a step towards inter- 
preting the transformation of the simple into the complex. 
13 






266 THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 



With, the view of attempting this, let us now reconsider 
the different types of Evolution awhile since delineated : 
taking them in the same order as before. 



§ 79. On contemplating our Solar System the first fact 
which strikes us, is, that all its members are in motion ; and 
that their motion is of a two-fold, or rather of a three-fold, 
kind. Each planet and satellite has a movement of rotation 
and a movement of translation ; besides the movement 
through space which all have in common with their rotating 
primary. Whence this unceasing change of place ? 

The hypothesis of Evolution supplies us with an answer. 
Impossible as it is to assign a reason for the pre- existence of 
matter in the diffused form supposed ; yet assuming its pre- 
existence in that form, we have in the gravitation of its parts 
a cause of motion adequate to the results. So far too as the 
evidence carries us, we can perceive some quantitative rela- 
tion between the motions produced, and the gravitative forces 
expended in producing them. The planets formed from that 
matter which has travelled the shortest distance towards the 
common centre of gravity, have the smallest velocities : the 
uniform law being that in advancing from the outermost to 
the innermost planets, the rate of orbital motion progressively 
increases. It may indeed be remarked that this is explicable 
on the teleological hypothesis ; since it is a condition to equi- 
librium. But without dwelling on the fact that this is beside 
the question, it will suffice to point out that the like cannot 
be said of the planetary rotations. No such final cause can 
be assigned for the rapid axial movement of Jupiter and 
Saturn, or the slow axial movement of Mercury. But if in 
pursuance of the doctrine of correlation we look for the ante- 
cedents of these gyrations which all planets exhibit, the 
theory of Evolution furnishes us with equivalent ones ; and 
ones which bear manifest quantitative relations to the motions 
displayed. For the planets that turn on their axes with ex- 
treme rapidity, are those having great masses and large 



THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 267 

orbits — those, that is, of which the once diffused elements 
moved to their centres of gravity through immense spaces, 
and so acquired high velocities. While, conversely, there 
has resulted the smallest axial movement where the orbit 
and the mass are both the smallest. 

" But what," it may be asked, " has in such case become 
of all that motion which brought about the aggregation of 
this diffused matter into solid bodies ? The rotation of each 
body can be but a residuary result of concentration — a result 
due to the imperfect balancing of gravitative movements 
from opposite points towards the common centre. Such 
gravitative movements from opposite points must in great 
measure destroy each other. What then has become of 
these mutually- destroyed motions ? The answer which the 
doctrine of correlation suggests is — they must have been 
radiated in the form of heat and light. And this answer 
the evidence, so far as it goes, confirms. Apart from any 
speculation respecting the genesis of the solar system, the 
inquiries of geologists lead to the conclusion that the heat of 
the Earth's still molten nucleus is but a remnant of the heat 
which once made molten the entire Earth. The mountainous 
surfaces of the Moon and of Yenus (which alone are near 
enough to be scrutinized), indicating, as they do, crusts that 
have, like our own, been corrugated by contraction, imply 
that these bodies too have undergone refrigeration — imply 
in each of them a primitive heat, such as the hypothesis ne- 
cessitates. Lastly, we have in the Sun a still-continued pro- 
duction of this heat and light, which must result from the 
arrest of diffused matter moving towards a common centre of 
gravity. Here also, as before, a quantitative relation 

is traceable. Among the bodies which make up the Solar 
System, those containing comparatively small amounts of 
matter whose centripetal motion has been destroyed, have al- 
ready lost nearly all the produced heat : a result which their 
relatively larger surfaces have facilitated. But the Sun, a 
thousand times as great in mass as the largest planet, and 



268 THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 

having therefore to give off an enormously greater quantity of 
heat and light due to arrest of moving matter, is still radiat- 
ing with great intensity. 

Thus we see that when, in pursuance of the doctrine of corre- 
lation, we ask whence come the forces which our Solar System 
displays, the hypothesis of Evolution gives us a proximate 
explanation. If the Solar System once existed in a state of 
indefinite, incoherent homogeneity, and has progressed to its 
present state of definite, coherent heterogeneity ; then the 
Motion, Heat, and Light now exhibited by its members, are 
interpretable as the correlatives of pre-existing forces ; and 
between them and their antecedents we may discern relations 
that are not only qualitative, but also rudely quantitative. 
How matter came to exist under the form assumed, is a 
mystery which we must regard as ultimate. But grant such 
a previous form of existence, and the hypothesis of Evolution 
interpreted by the laws of correlation, explains for us the 
forces as we now see them. 

§ 80. If we inquire the origin of those forces which have 
wrought the surface of our planet into its present shape, we 
find them traceable to the same primordial source as that 
just assigned. Assuming the solar system to have been 
evolved, then geologic changes are either direct or indirect 
results of the unexpended heat caused by nebular condensa- 
tion. These changes are commonly divided into igneous and 
aqueous : — heads under which we may most conveniently con- 
sider them. 

All those periodic disturbances which we call earthquakes, 
all those elevations and subsidences which they severally 
produce, all those accumulated effects of many such eleva- 
tions and subsidences exhibited in ocean-basins, islands, con- 
tinents, table-lands, mountain -chains, and all those forma- 
tions which are distinguished as volcanic, geologists now 
regard as modifications of the Earth's crust produced by the 
still-molten matter occupying its interior. However unten- 



THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 269 

able may be the details of M. Elie de Beaumont's theory, 
there is good reason to accept the general proposition that 
the disruptions and variations of level which take place at 
intervals on the terrestrial surface, are due to the progressive 
collapse of the Earth's solid envelope upon its cooling and 
contracting nucleus. Even supposing that volcanic erup- 
tions, extrusions of igneous rock, and upheaved mountain- 
chains, could be otherwise satisfactorily accounted for, which 
they cannot ; it would be impossible otherwise to account for 
those wide-spread elevations and depressions whence conti- 
nents and oceans result. The conclusion to be drawn is, 
then, that the forces displayed in these so-called igneous 
changes, are derived positively or negatively from the unex- 
pended heat of the Earth's interior. Such phenomena as the 
fusion or agglutination of sedimentary deposits, the warming 
of springs, the sublimation of metals into the fissures where 
we find them as ores, may be regarded as positive results of 
this residuary heat ; while fractures of strata and alterations 
of level are its negative results, since they ensue on its escape. 
The original cause of all these effects is still, however, as it 
has been from the first, the gravitating movement of the 
Earth's matter towards the Earth's centre ; seeing that to 
this is due both the internal heat itself and the collapse 
which takes place as it is radiated into space. 

When we inquire under what forms previously existed the 
force which works out the geological changes classed as 
aqueous, the answer is less obvious. The effects of rain, of 
rivers, of winds, of waves, of marine currents, do not mani- 
festly proceed from one general source. Analysis, neverthe- 
less, proves to us that they have a common genesis. If we 
ask, — Whence comes the power of the river-current, bearing 
sediment down to the sea ? the reply is, — The gravitation of 
water throughout the tract which this river drains. If we 
ask, — How came the water to be dispersed over this tract ? the 
reply is, — It fell in the shape of rain. If we ask, — How came 
the rain to be in that position whence it fell ? the reply is, 



270 THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 

— The vapour from which it was condensed was drifted there 
by the winds. If we ask, — How came this vapour to be at 
that elevation ? the reply is, — It was raised by evaporation. 
And if we ask, — "What force thus raised it ? the reply is, — • 
The sun's heat. Just that amount of gravitative force which 
the sun's heat overcame in raising the atoms of water, is 
given out again in the fall of those atoms to the same level. 
Hence the denudations effected by rain and rivers, during 
the descent of this condensed vapour to the level of the sea, 
are indirectly due to the sun's heat. Similarly with the 
winds that transport the vapours hither and thither. Con- 
sequent as atmospheric currents are on differences of tempera- 
ture (either general, as between the equatorial and polar 
regions, or special as between tracts of the Earth's surface of 
unlike physical characters) all such currents are due to that 
source from which the varying quantities of heat proceed. 
And if the winds thus originate, "so too do the waves raised 
by them on the sea's surface. Whence it follows that what- 
ever changes waves produce — the wearing away* of shores, 
the breaking down of rocks into shingle, sand, and mud — ■ 
are also traceable to the solar rays as their primary cause. 
The same may be said of ocean-currents. Generated as the 
larger ones are by the excess of heat which the ocean in 
tropical climates continually acquires from the Sun ; and 
generated as the smaller ones are by minor local differences 
in the quantities of solar heat absorbed ; it follows that the 
distribution of sediment and other geological processes which 
these marine currents effect, are affiliable upon the force 
which the sun radiates. The only aqueous agency otherwise 
originating is that of the tides — an agency which, equally with 
the others, is traceable to unexpended astronomical motion. 
But making allowance for the changes which this works, we 
reach the conclusion that the slow wearing down of conti- 
nents and gradual filling up of seas, by rain, rivers, winds, 
waves, and ocean-streams, are the indirect effects of solar 
heat. 






THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 271 

Thus the implication forced on us by the doctrine of corre- 
lation, that the forces which have moulded and re-moulded 
the Earth's crust must have pre-existed under some other 
shape, is quite in conformity with the theory of Evolution ; 
since this pre- supposes certain forces that are both adequate 
to the results, and cannot be expended without producing 
the results. We see that while the geological changes classed 
as igneous, result from the still-progressing motion of the 
Earth's substance to its centre of gravity ; the antagonistic 
changes classed as aqueous, result from the still-progressing 
motion of the Sun's substance towards its centre of gravity — 
a motion which, transformed into heat and radiated to us, is 
here re-transformed, directly into motions of the gaseous and 
liquid matters on the Earth's surface, and indirectly into 
motions of the solid matters. 

§ 81. That the forces exhibited in vital actions, vegetal 
and animal, are similarly derived, is so obvious a deduction 
from the facts of organic chemistry, that it will meet with 
ready acceptance from readers acquainted with these facts. 
Let us note first the physiological generalizations ; and then 
the generalizations which they necessitate. 

Plant-life is all directly or indirectly dependant on the 
heat and light of the sun— directly dependant in the im- 
mense majority of plants, and indirectly dependant in plants 
which, as the fungi, flourish in the dark : since these, growing 
as they do at the expense of decaying organic matter, medi- 
ately draw their forces from the same original source. Each 
plant owes the carbon and hydrogen of which it mainly con- 
sists, to the carbonic acid and water contained in the surround- 
ing air and earth. The carbonic acid and water must, how- 
ever, be decomposed before their carbon and hydrogen can 
be assimilated. To overcome the powerful affinities which 
hold their elements together, requires the expenditure of 
force; and this force is supplied by the Sun. In what 
manner the decomposition is effected we do not know. But 



272 THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 

we know that when, under fit conditions, plants are exposed 
to the Sun's rays, they give off oxygen and accumulate carbon 
and hydrogen. In darkness this process ceases. It ceases 
too when the quantities of light and heat received are greatly 
reduced, as in winter. Conversely^ it is active when the light 
and heat are great, as in summer. And the like relation is 
seen in the fact that while plant-life is luxuriant in the 
tropics, it diminishes in temperate regions, and disappears as 
we approach the poles. Thus the irresistible inference is, 
that the forces by which plants abstract the materials of their 
tissues from surrounding inorganic compounds — the forces by 
which they grow and carry on their functions, are forces that 
previously existed as solar radiations. 

That animal life is immediately or mediately dependant on 
vegetal life is a familiar truth ; and that, in the main, the 
processes of animal life are opposite to those of vegetal life is a 
truth long current among men of science. Chemically con- 
sidered, vegetal life is chiefly a process of de-oxidation, and 
animal life chiefly a process of oxidation : chiefly, we must- 
say, because in so far as plants are expenders of force for the 
purposes of organization, they are oxidizers (as is shown by 
the exhalation of carbonic acid during the night) ; and ani- 
mals, in some of their minor processes, are probably de-oxi- 
dizers. But with this qualification, the general truth is 
that while the plant, decomposing carbonic acid and water 
and liberating oxygen, builds up the detained carbon and 
hydrogen (along with a little nitrogen and small quanti- 
ties of other elements elsewhere obtained) into branches, 
leaves, and seeds; the animal, consuming these branches, 
leaves, and seeds, and absorbing oxygen, recomposes car- 
bonic acid and water, together with certain nitrogenous 
compounds in minor amounts. And while the decom- 
position effected by the plant, is at the expense of cer- 
tain forces emanating from the sun, which are employed 
in overcoming the affinities of carbon and hydrogen for the 
oxygen united with them ; the re- composition effected by the 



THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 273 

animal, is at the profit of these forces, which are liberated 
during the combination of such elements. Thus the move- 
ments, internal and external, of the animal, are re-appear- 
ances in new forms of a power absorbed by the plant under 
the shape of light and heat. Just as, in the manner 
above explained, the solar forces expended in raising vapour 
from the sea's surface, are given out again in the fall of rain 
and rivers to the same level, and in the accompanying trans- 
fer of solid matters ; so, the solar forces that in the plant 
raised certain chemical elements to a condition of unstable 
equilibrium, are given out again in the actions of the animal 
during the fall of these elements to a condition of stable 
equilibrium. 

Besides thus tracing a qualitative correlation between these 
two great orders of organic activity, as well as between both 
of them and inorganic agencies, we may rudely trace a 
quantitative correlation. Where vegetal life is abundant, we 
usually find abundant animal life ; and as we advance from 
torrid to temperate and frigid climates, the two decrease to- 
gether. Speaking generally, the animals of each class reach 
a larger size in regions where vegetation is abundant, than 
in those where it is sparse. And further, there is a tolerably 
apparent connexion between the quantity of energy which 
each species of animal expends, and the quantity of force 
which the nutriment it absorbs gives out during oxidation. 

Certain phenomena of development in both plants and 
animals, illustrate still more directly the ultimate truth 
enunciated. Pursuing the suggestion made by Mr. Grove, 
in the first edition of his work on the " Correlation of the 
Physical Forces," that a connexion probably exists between 
the forces classed as vital and those classed as physical, 
Dr. Carpenter has pointed out that such a connexion is 
clearly exhibited during incubation. The transformation of 
the unorganized contents of an egg into the organized chick, 
is altogether a question of heat : withhold heat and the process 
does not commence ; supply heat and it goes on while the 
13* 



274 THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 

temperature is maintained, but ceases when the egg is allowed 
to cool. The developmental changes can be completed only 
by keeping the temperature with tolerable constancy at a 
definite height for a definite time ; that is — only by supply- 
ing a definite quantity of heat. In the metamorphoses of 
insects we may discern parallel facts. Experiments show 
not only that the hatching of their eggs is determined by 
temperature, but also that the evolution of the pupa into the 
imago is similarly determined ; and may be immensely ac- 
celerated or retarded according as heat is artificially supplied 
or withheld. It will suffice just to add that the germination of 
plants presents like relations of cause and effect — relations so 
similar that detail is superfluous. 

Thus then the various changes exhibited to us by the 
organic creation, whether considered as a whole, or in its two 
great divisions, or in its individual members, conform, so far 
as we can ascertain, to the law of correlation. Where, as in 
the transformation of an egg into a chick, we can investigate 
the phenomena apart from all complications, we find that the 
re-arrangement of parts which constitutes evolution, involves 
expenditure of a pre-existing force. Where it is not, as 
in the egg or the chrysalis, merely the change of a fixed 
quantity of matter into a new shape, but where, as in the 
growing plant or animal, we have an incorporation of matter 
existing outside, there is still a pre-existing external force 
at the cost of which this incorporation is effected. And 
where, as in the higher division of organisms, there re- 
main over and above the forces expended in organization, 
certain surplus forces expended in movement, these too are 
indirectly derived from this same pre-existing external force. 

§ 82. Even after all that has been said in the foregoing 
part of this work, many will be alarmed by the assertion, 
that the forces which we distinguish as mental, come within 
the same generalization. Yet there is no alternative but to 
make this assertion : the facts which justify, or rather which 



THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 275 

necessitate it, being abundant and conspicuous. They fall 
into the following groups. 

All impressions from moment to moment made on our 
organs of sense, stand in direct correlation with physical 
forces existing externally. The modes of consciousness called 
pressure, motion, sound, light, heat, are effects produced in 
us by agencies which, as otherwise expended, crush or fracture 
pieces of matter, generate vibrations in surrounding objects, 
cause chemical combinations, and reduce substances from a 
solid to a liquid form. Hence if we regard the changes of 
relative position, of aggregation, or of chemical state, thus 
arising, as being transformed manifestations of the agencies 
from which they arise ; so must we regard the sensations 
which such agencies produce in us, as new forms of the forces 
producing them. Any hesitation to admit that, be- 

tween the physical forces and the sensations there exists a 
correlation like that between the physical forces themselves, 
must disappear on remembering how the one correlation, like 
the other, is not qualitative only but quantitative. Masses 
of matter which, by scales or dynamometer, are shown to 
differ greatly in weight, differ as greatly in the feelings of 
pressure they produce on our bodies. In arresting moving 
objects, the strains we are conscious of are proportionate to 
the momenta of such objects as otherwise measured. Under 
like conditions the impressions of sounds given to us by 
vibrating strings, bells, or columns of air, are found to vary 
in strength with the amount of force applied. Fluids or 
solids proved to be markedly contrasted in temperature by 
the different degrees of expansion they produce in the 
mercurial column, produce in us correspondingly different 
degrees of the sensation of heat. And similarly unlike in- 
tensities in our impressions of light, answer to unlike effects 
as measured by photometers. 

Besides the correlation and equivalence between external 
physical forces, and the mental forces generated by them in 
us under the form of sensations, there is a correlation and 



276 THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES, 

equivalence between sensations and those physical forces 
which, in the shape of bodily actions, result from them. The 
feelings we distinguish as light, heat, sound, odour, taste, 
pressure, &c, do not die away without immediate results ; 
but are invariably followed by other manifestations of force. 
In addition to the excitements of secreting organs, that are 
in some cases traceable, there arises a contraction of the in- 
voluntary muscles, or of the voluntary muscles, or of both. 
Sensations increase the action of the heart — slightly when, 
they are slight ; markedly when they are marked ; and recent 
physiological inquiries imply not only that contraction of the 
heart is excited by every sensation, but also that the muscular 
fibres throughout the whole vascular system, are at the same 
time more or less contracted. The respiratory muscles, too., 
are stimulated into greater activity by sensations. The rate 
of breathing is visibly and audibly augmented both by plea- 
surable and painful impressions on the nerves, when these 
reach any intensity. It has even of late been shown that 
inspiration becomes more frequent on transition from dark- 
ness into sunshine, — a result probably due to the increased 
amount of direct and indirect nervous stimulation involved. 
When the quantity of sensation is great, it generates con- 
tractions of the voluntary muscles, as well as of the involun- 
tary ones. Unusual excitement of the nerves of touch, as by 
tickling, is followed by almost incontrollable movements of 
the limbs. Violent pains cause violent struggles. The 
start that succeeds a loud sound, the wry face produced by 
the taste of anything extremely disagreeable, the jerk with 
which the hand or foot is snatched out of water that is very 
hot, are instances of, the transformation of feeling into 
motion ; and in these cases, as in all others, it is manifest 
that the quantity of bodily action is proportionate to the 
quantity of sensation. Even where from pride there is a 
suppression of the screams and groans expressive of great 
pain (also indirect results of muscular contraction), we may 
still see in the clenching of the hands, the knitting of the 



THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 277 

brows, and the setting of the teeth, that the bodily actions 
developed are as great, though less obtrusive in their re- 
sults. If we take emotions instead of sensations, we 
find the correlation and equivalence equally manifest. Not 
only are the modes of consciousness directly produced in us 
by physical forces, re-transformable into physical forces under 
the form of muscular motions and the changes they initiate ; 
but the like is true of those modes of consciousness which are 
not directly produced in us by the physical forces. Emotions 
of moderate intensity, like sensations of moderate intensity, 
generate little beyond excitement of the heart and vascular 
system, joined sometimes with increased action of glandular 
organs. But as the emotions rise in strength, the muscles of 
the face, body, and limbs, begin to move. Of examples may 
be mentioned the frowns, dilated nostrils, and stampings of 
anger ; the contracted brows, and wrung hands, of grief ; the 
smiles and leaps of joy ; and the frantic struggles of terror or 
despair. Passing over certain apparent, but only apparent, 
exceptions, we see that whatever be the kind of emotion, 
there is a manifest relation between its amount, and the 
amount of muscular action induced : alike from the erect 
carriage and elastic step of exhilaration, up to the dancings 
of immense delight, and from the fidgettiness of impatience 
up to the almost convulsive movements accompanying great 
mental agony. To these several orders of evidence 
must be joined the further one, that between our feelings and 
those voluntary motions into which they are transformed, 
there comes the sensation of muscular tension, standing in 
manifest correlation with both — a correlation that is dis- 
tinctly quantitative : the sense of strain varying, other 
things equal, directly as the quantity of momentum 
generated. 

" But how," it may be asked, " can we interpret by the 
law of correlation the genesis of those thoughts and feelings 
which, instead of following external stimuli, arise spontaneous- 
ly P Between the indignation caused by an insult, and the 



278 THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 

loud sounds or violent acts that follow, the alleged connexion 
may hold ; but whence come the crowd of ideas and the mass 
of feelings that expend themselves in these demonstrations ? 
They are clearly not equivalents of the sensations produced 
by the words on the ears; for the same words otherwise 
arranged, would not have caused them. The thing said 
bears to the mental action it excites, much the same relation 
that the pulling of a trigger bears to the subsequent explo- 
sion — does not produce the power, but merely liberates it. 
Whence then arises this immense amount of nervous energy 
which a whisper or a glance may call forth?" The 

reply is, that the immediate correlates of these and other such 
modes of consciousness, are not to be found in the agencies 
acting on us externally, but in certain internal agencies. 
The forces called vital, which we have seen to be correlates 
of the forces called physical, are the immediate sources of 
these thoughts and feelings ; and are expended in producing 
them. The proofs of this are various. Here are some of 
them. It is a conspicuous fact that mental action is 

contingent on the presence of a certain nervous apparatus ; 
and that, greatly obscured as it is by numerous and involved 
conditions, a general relation may be traced between the size 
of this apparatus and the quantity of mental action as measur- 
ed by its results. Further, this apparatus has a particular 
chemical constitution on which its activity depends ; and 
there is one element in it between the amount of which and 
the amount of function performed, there is an ascertained 
connexion : the proportion of phosphorus present in the brain 
being the smallest in infancy, old age and idiotcy, and the 
greatest during the prime of life. Note next, that 

the evolution of thought and emotion varies, other things 
equal, with the supply of blood to the brain. On the one 
hand, a cessation of the cerebral circulation, from arrest of 
the heart's action, immediately entails unconsciousness. On 
the other hand, excess of cerebral circulation (unless it is 
such as to cause undue pressure) results in an excitement 



THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 279 

rising finally to delirium. Not the quantity only, 

but also the condition of the blood passing through the 
nervous system, influences the mental manifestations. The 
arterial currents must be duly aerated, to produce the normal 
amount of cerebration. At the one extreme, we find that if 
the blood is not allowed to exchange its carbonic acid for 
oxygen, there results asphyxia, with its accompanying stop- 
page of ideas and feelings. While^at the other extreme, we 
find that by the inspiration of nitrous oxide, there is pro- 
duced an excessive, and indeed irrepressible, nervous ac- 
tivity. Besides the connexion between the develop- 
ment of the mental forces and the presence of sufficient 
oxygen in the cerebral arteries, there is a kindred connexion 
between the development of the mental forces and the pre- 
sence in the cerebral arteries of certain other elements. 
There must be supplied special materials for the nutrition of 
the nervous centres, as well as for their oxidation. And how 
what we may call the quantity of consciousnesses, other things 
equal, determined by the constituents of the blood, is unmis- 
takeably seen in the exaltation that follows when certain 
chemical compounds, as alcohol and the vegeto-alkalies, are 
added to it. The gentle exhilaration which tea and coffee 
create, is familiar to all ; and though the gorgeous imagina- 
tions and intense feelings of happiness produced by opium 
and hashish, have been experienced by few, (in this country 
at least,) the testimony of those who have experienced them 
is sufficiently conclusive. Yet another proof that the 
genesis of the mental energies is immediately dependent on 
chemical change, is afforded by the fact, that the effete pro- 
ducts separated from the blood by the kidneys, vary in cha- 
racter with the amount of cerebral action. Excessive activity 
of mind is habitually accompanied by the excretion of an un- 
usual quantity of the alkaline phosphates. Conditions of 
abnormal nervous excitement bring on analogous effects. 
And the " peculiar odour of the insane," implying as it does 
morbid products in the perspiration, shows a connexion be- 



280 THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 

tween insanity and a special composition of the circulating 
fluids — a composition which, whether regarded as cause or 
consequence, equally implies correlation of the mental and 
the physical forces. Lastly we have to note that this 

correlation too, is, so far as we can trace it, quantitative. 
Provided the conditions to nervous action are not infringed 
on, and the concomitants are the same, there is a tolerably 
constant ratio between the amounts of the antecedents and 
consequents. Within the implied limits, nervous stimulants 
and anaesthetics produce effects on the thoughts and feel- 
ings, proportionate to the quantities administered. And 
conversely, where the thoughts and feelings form the initial 
term of the relation, the degree of reaction on the bodily 
energies is great, in proportion as they are great : reaching 
in extreme cases a total prostration of physique. 

Various classes of facts thus unite to prove that the law of 
metamorphosis, which holds among the physical forces, 
holds equally between them and the mental forces. 
Those modes of the Unknowable which we call mo- 
tion, heat, light, chemical affinity, &c, are alike trans- 
formable into each other, and into those modes of the 
Unknowable which we distinguish as sensation, emotion, 
thought: these, in their turns, being directly or indirectly 
re- transformable into the original shapes. That no idea or 
feeling arises, save as a result of some physical force expended 
in producing it, is fast becoming a common place of science ; 
and whoever duly weighs the evidence will see, that nothing 
but an overwhelming bias in favour of a pre- conceived 
theory, can explain its non-acceptance. How this 

metamorphosis takes place — how a force existing as motion, 
heat, or light, can become a mode of consciousness — how it is 
possible for aerial vibrations to generate the sensation we call 
sound, or for the forces liberated by chemical changes in the 
brain to give rise to emotion — these are mysteries which it is 
impossible to fathom. But they are not profounder mysteries 
than the transformations of the physical forces into each other. 



THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 281 

They are not more completely beyond our comprehension 
than the natures of Mind and Matter. They have simply the 
same insolubility as all other ultimate questions. We can 
learn nothing more than that here is one of the uniformities 
in the order of phenomena. 

§ 83. Of course if the law of correlation and equivalence 
holds of the forces we class as vital and mental, it must hold 
also of those which we class as social. Whatever takes place 
in a society is due to organic or inorganic agencies, or to 
a combination of the two— results either from the undirected 
physical forces around, from these physical forces as directed 
by men, or from the forces of the men themselves. No 
change can occur in its organization, its modes of activity, or 
the effects it produces on the face of the Earth, but what 
proceeds, mediately or immediately, from these. Let us con- 
sider first the correlation between the phenomena which 
societies display, and the vital phenomena. 

Social power and life varies, other things equal, with the 
population. Though different races, differing widely in their 
fitness for combination, show us that the forces manifested in 
a society are not necessarily proportionate to the number of 
people ; yet we see that under given conditions, the forces 
manifested are confined within the limits which the number 
of people imposes. A small society, no matter how superior 
the character of its members, cannot exhibit the same 
quantity of social action as a large one. The production and 
distribution of commodities must be on a comparatively small 
scale. A multitudinous press, a prolific literature, or a 
massive political agitation, is not possible. And there can 
be but a small total of results in the shape of art-products 
and scientific discoveries. The correlation of the 

social with the physical forces through the intermediation of 
the vital oneju is, however, most clearly shown in the different 
amounts of activity displayed by the same society according 
as its members are supplied with different amounts of force 



282 THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 

from the external world. In the effects of good and bad 
harvests, we yearly see this relation illustrated. A greatly 
deficient yield of wheat is soon followed by a diminution of 
business. Factories are worked half-time, or close entirely ; 
railway traffic falls ; retailers find their sales much lessened ; 
house-building is almost suspended ;• and if the scarcity 
rises to famine, a thinning of the population still more 
diminishes the industrial vivacity. Conversely, an unusually 
abundant harvest, occurring under conditions not otherwise 
unfavourable, both excites the old producing and distributing 
agencies and sets up new ones. The surplus social energy 
finds vent in speculative enterprises. Capital seeking in- 
vestment carries out inventions that have been lying unutil- 
ized. Labour is expended in opening new channels of com- 
munication. There is increased encouragement to those who 
furnish the luxuries of life and minister to the aesthetic 
faculties. There are more marriages, and a greater rate of 
increase in population. Thus the social organism grows 
larger, more complex, and more active. When, as 

happens with most civilized nations, the whole of the ma- 
terials for subsistence are not drawn from the area inhabited, 
but are partly imported, the people are still supported by 
certain harvests elsewhere grown at the expense of certain 
physical forces. Our own cotton- spinners and weavers supply 
the most conspicuous instance of a section in one nation liv- 
ing, in great part, on imported commodities, purchased by the 
labour they expend on other imported commodities. But 
though the social activities of Lancashire are due chiefly to 
materials not drawn from our own soil, they are none the less 
evolved from physical forces elsewhere stored up in fit forms 
and then brought here. 

If we ask whence come these physical forces from which, 
through the intermediation of the vital forces, the social 
forces arise, the reply is of course as heretofore — the solar 
radiations. Based as the life of a society is on animal and 
vegetal products ; and dependent as these animal and vegetal 



THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 283 

products are on the light and heat of the sun ; it follows that 
the changes going on in societies are effects of forces haying 
a common origin with those which produce all the other 
orders of changes that have been analyzed. Not only is the 
force expended by the horse harnessed to the plough, and by 
the labourer guiding it, derived from the same reservoir 
as is the force of the falling cataract and the roaring hurri- 
cane ; but to this same reservoir are eventually traceable those 
subtler and more complex manifestations of force which 
humanity, as socially embodied, evolves. The assertion is a 
startling one, and by many will be thought ludicrous ; but it 
is an unavoidable deduction which cannot here be passed over. 
Of the physical forces that are directly transformed into 
social ones, the like is to be said. Currents of air and water, 
which before the use of steam were the only agencies brought 
in aid of muscular effort for the performance of industrial 
processes, are, as we have seen, generated by the heat of the 
sun. And the inanimate power that now, to so vast an 
extent, supplements human labour, is similarly derived. The 
late George Stephenson was one of the first to recognize the 
fact that the force impelling his locomotive, originally eman- 
ated from the sun. Step by step we go back — from the mo- 
tion of the piston to the evaporation of the water ; thence to 
the heat evolved during the oxidation of coal ; thence to the 
assimilation of carbon by the plants of whose imbedded re- 
mains coal consists ; thence to the carbonic acid from which 
their carbon was obtained ; and thence to the rays of light 
that de-oxidized this carbonic acid. Solar forces millions of 
years ago expended on the Earth's vegetation, and since 
locked up beneath its surface, now smelt the metals required 
for our machines, turn the lathes by which the machines are 
shaped, work them when put together, and distribute the 
fabrics they produce. And in so far as economy of labour 
makes possiWe the support of a larger population ; gives a 
surplus of miman power that would else be absorbed in 
manual occupations ; and so facilitates the development of 



284 THE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 

higher kinds of activity ; it is clear that these social forces 
which are directly correlated with physical forces anciently 
derived from the sun, are only less important than those 
whose correlates are the vital forces recently derived from it. 

§ 84. Regarded as an induction, the doctrine set forth in 
this chapter will most likely be met by a demurrer. Many 
who admit that among physical phenomena at least, the 
correlation of forces is now established, will probably say that 
inquiry has not yet gone far enough to enable us to predicate 
equivalence. And in respect of the forces classed as vital, 
mental, and social, the evidence assigned, however little to be 
explained away, they will consider by no means conclusive 
even of correlation, much less of equivalence. 

To those who think thus, it must now however be pointed 
out, that the universal truth above illustrated under its various 
aspects, is a necessary corollary from the persistence of force. 
Setting out with the proposition that force can neither come 
into existence, nor cease to exist, the several foregoing 
general conclusions inevitably follow. Each manifestation of 
force can be interpreted only as the effect of some antecedent 
force : no matter whether it be an inorganic action, an 
animal movement, a thought, or a feeling. Either this must 
be conceded, or else it must be asserted that our successive 
states of consciousness are self- created. Either mental 
energies, as well as bodily ones, are quantitatively correlated 
to certain energies expended in their production, and to 
certain other energies which they initiate ; or else nothing 
must become something and something must become nothing 
The alternatives are, to deny the persistence of force, or to 
admit that every physical and psychial change is generated 
by certain antecedent forces, and that from given amounts of 
such forces neither more nor less of such physical and psychial 
changes can result. And since the persistence of force, being a 
datum of consciousness, cannot be denied, its unavoidable corol- 
lary must be accepted. This corollary cannot indeed be 



CHE CORRELATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 285 

made more certain by accumulating illustrations. The truth as 
arrived at deductively, cannot be inductively confirmed. For 
every one of such facts as those above detailed, is established 
only through the indirect assumption of that persistence of 
force, from which it really follows as a direct consequence. 
The most exact proof of correlation and equivalence which it 
is possible to reach by experimental inquiry, is that based on 
measurement of the forces expended and the forces produced. 
But, as was shown in the last chapter, any such process of 
measurement implies the use of some unit of force which is 
assumed to remain constant ; and for this assumption there 
can be no warrant but that it is a corollary from the persist- 
ence of force. How then can any reasoning based on this 
corollary, prove the equally direct corollary that when a given 
quantity of force ceases to exist under one form, an equal 
quantity must come into existence under some other form or 
forms? Clearly the a priori truth expressed in this last 
corollary, cannot be more firmly established by any a pos- 
teriori proofs which the first corollary helps us to. 

" What then,"- it may be asked, " is the use of these investi- 
gations by which the correlation and equivalence of forces is 
sought to be established as an inductive truth? Surely it 
will not be alleged that they are useless. Yet if this corre- 
lation cannot be made more certain by them than it is already, 
does not their uselessness necessarily follow ?" No. They are 
of value as disclosing the many particular implications which 
the general truth does not specify. They are of value as 
teaching us how much of one mode of force is the equivalent 
of so much of another mode. They are of value as determin- 
ing under what conditions each metamorphosis occurs. And 
they are of value as leading us to inquire in what shape 
the remnant of force has escaped, when the apparent results 
are not equivalent to the cause. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 

§ .85. The Absolute Cause of changes, inclusive of those 
constituting Evolution, is not less incomprehensible in respect 
of the unity or duality of its action, than in^ all other respects. 
We cannot decide between the alternative suppositions, that * 
phenomena are due to the variously- conditioned workings of a 
single force, and that they are due to the conflict of two forces. 
Whether, as some contend, everything is explicable on the 
hypothesis of universal pressure, whence what we call tension 
results differentially from inequalities of pressure in opposite 
directions ; or whether, as might be with equal propriety con- 
tended, things are to be explained on the hypothesis of uni- 
versal tension, from which pressure is a differential result ; or 
whether, as most physicists hold, pressure and tension every- 
where co- exist ; are questions which it is impossible to settle. 
Each of these three suppositions makes the facts comprehen- 
sible, only by postulating an inconceivability. To assume a 
universal pressure, confessedly requires us to assume an 
infinite plenum — an unlimited space full of something which 
is everywhere pressed by something beyond ; and this 
assumption cannot be mentally realized. That universal 
tension is the immediate agency to which phenomena are 
due, is an idea open to a parallel and equally fatal objection. 
And however verbally intelligible may be the proposition that 
pressure and tension everywhere co-exist, yet we cannot truly 



THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 287 

represent to ourselves one ultimate unit of matter as drawing 
another while resisting it. 

Nevertheless, this last belief is one which we are compelled 
to entertain. Matter cannot be conceived except as mani- 
festing forces of attraction and repulsion. Body is dis- 
tinguished in our consciousness from Space, by its opposition 
to our muscular energies ; and this opposition we feel under 
the twofold form of a cohesion that hinders our efforts to 
rend, and a resistance that hinders our efforts to compress. 
Without resistance there can be merely empty extension. 
Without cohesion there can be no resistance. Probably this 
conception of antagonistic forces, is originally derived from 
the antagonism of our flexor and extensor muscles. But be 
this as it may, we are obliged to think of all objects as made 
up of parts that attract and repel each other ; since this is the 
form of our experience of all objects. 

By a higher abstraction results the conception of attractive 
and repulsive forces pervading space. We cannot dissociate 
force from occupied extension, or occupied extension from 
force ; because we have never an immediate consciousness of 
either in the absence of the other. Nevertheless, we have 
abundant proof that force is exercised through what ap- 
pears to our senses a vacuity. Mentally to represent this 
exercise, we are hence obliged to fill the apparent vacuity 
with a species of matter — an etherial medium. The consti- 
tution we assign to this etherial medium, however, like the 
constitution we assign to solid substance, is necessarily an 
abstract of the impressions received from tangible bodies. 
The opposition to pressure which a tangible body offers to us, 
is not shown in one direction only, but in all directions ; and 
so likewise is its tenacity. Suppose countless lines radiating 
from its centre on every side, and it resists along each of these 
lines and coheres along each of these lines. Hence the 
constitution of those ultimate units through the instrumen- 
tality of which phenomena are interpreted. Be they atoms 
of ponderable matter or molecules of ether, the properties we 



288 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 

conceive them to possess are nothing else than these per- 
ceptible properties idealized. Centres of force attracting and 
repelling each other in all directions, are simply insensible 
portions of matter having the endowments common to sensi- 
ble portions of matter — endowments of which we cannot by 
any mental effort divest them. In brief, they are the in- 
variable elements of the conception of matter, abstracted from 
its variable elements — size, form, quality, &c. And so to 
interpret manifestations of force which cannot be tactually 
experienced, we use the terms of thought supplied by our 
tactual experiences ; and this for the sufficient reason that we 
must use these or none. 

After all that has been before shown, and after the hint 
given above, it needs scarcely be said that these universally 
co-existent forces of attraction and repulsion, must not be 
taken as realities, but as our symbols of the reality. r They 
are the forms under which the workings of the Unknowable 
are cognizable by us — modes of the Unconditioned as pre- 
sented under the conditions of our consciousness. But while 
knowing that the ideas thus generated in us are not absolutely 
true, we may unreservedly surrender ourselves to them as re- 
latively true ; and may proceed to evolve a series of deduc- 
tions having a like relative truth. 

§ 86. From universally co- existent forces of attraction and 
repulsion, there result certain laws of direction of all move- 
ment. Where attractive forces alone are concerned, or 
rather are alone appreciable, movement takes place in the di- 
rection of their resultant ; which may, in a sense, be called the 
line of greatest traction. Where repulsive forces alone are 
concerned, or rather are alone appreciable, movement takes 
place along their resultant ; which is usually known as the line 
of least resistance. And where both attractive and repulsive 
forces are concerned, or are appreciable, movement takes 
place along the resultant of all the tractions and resistances. 
Strictly speaking, this last is the sole law; since, by the 






THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 289 

hypothesis, both forces are everywhere in action. But 
very frequently the one kind of force is so immensely in 
excess that the effect of the other kind may be left out of 
consideration. Practically we may say that a body falling 
to the Earth, follows the line of greatest traction ; since, 
though the resistance of the air must, if the body be irregular, 
cause some divergence from this line, (quite perceptible with 
feathers and leaves,) yet ordinarily the divergence is so slight 
that we may omit it. In the same manner, though the course 
taken by the steam from an exploding boiler, differs somewhat 
from that which it would take were gravitation out of the ques- 
tion ; yet, as gravitation affects its course infinitesimally, we are 
justified in asserting that the escaping steam follows the line of 
least resistance. Motion then, we may say, always follows the 
line of greatest traction, or the line of least resistance, or the 
resultant of the two : bearing in mind that though the last is 
alone strictly true, the others are in many cases sufficiently 
near the truth for practical purposes. 

Movement set up in any direction is itself a cause of further 
movement in that direction, since it is the embodiment of a 
surplus force in that direction. This holds equally with the 
transit of matter through space, the transit of matter through 
matter, and the transit through matter of any kind of vibra- 
tion. In the case of matter moving through space, this prin- 
ciple is expressed in the law of inertia — a law on which the 
calculations of physical astronomy are wholly based. In the 
case of matter moving through matter, we trace the same 
truth under the familiar experience that any breach made by 
one solid through another, or any channel formed by a fluid 
through a solid, becomes a route along which, other things 
equal, subsequent movements of like nature take place. And 
in the case of motion passing through matter under the form 
of an impulse communicated from part to part, the facts of 
magnetization go to show that the establishment of undula- 
tions along certain lines, determines their continuance along 
those lines. 

14 



290 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 

It further follows from the conditions, that the direction of 
movement can rarely if ever be perfectly straight. For 
matter in motion to pursue continuously the exact line in 
which it sets out, the forces of attraction and repulsion 
must be symmetrically disposed around its path ; and the 
chances against this are infinitely great. The impossibility 
of making an absolutely true edge to a bar of metal— the 
fact that all which can be done by the best mechanical ap- 
pliances, is to reduce the irregularities of such an edge to 
amounts that cannot be perceived without magnifiers — suffi- 
ciently exemplifies how, in consequence of the unsymmetrical 
distribution of forces around the line of movement, the move- 
ment is rendered more or less indirect. It may be 
well to add that in proportion as the forces at work are 
numerous and varied, the curve a moving body describes is 
necessarily complex : witness the contrast between the flight 
of an arrow and the gyrations of a stick tossed about by 
breakers. 

"We have now to trace these laws of direction of movement 
throughout the process of Evolution, under its various forms. 
We have to note how every change in the arrangement of 
parts, takes place along the line of greatest traction, of least 
resistance, or of their resultant ; how the setting up of motion 
along a certain line, becomes a cause of its continuance along 
that line ; how, nevertheless, change of relations to external 
forces, always renders this line indirect ; and how the degree 
of its indirectness increases with every addition to the number 
of influences at work. ._. 

§ 87. If we assume the first stage in nebular condensation 
to be the precipitation into flocculi of denser matter previously 
diffused through a rarer medium, (a supposition both physi- 
cally justified, and in harmony with certain astronomical ob- 
servations,) we shall find that nebular motion is interpretable 
in pursuance of the above general laws. Each portion of such 
vapour- like matter must begin to move towards the common 



THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 291 

centre of gravity. The tractive forces which would of them- 
selves carry it in a straight line to the centre of gravity, are 
opposed by the resistant forces of the medium through 
which it is drawn. The direction of movement must be the 
resultant of these — a resultant which, in consequence of the 
unsymmetrical form of the flocculus, must be a curve directed, 
not to the centre of gravity, but towards one side of it. And 
it may be readily shown that in an aggregation of such floc- 
culi, severally thus moving, there must, by composition of 
forces, eventually result a rotation of the whole nebula in one 
direction. 

Merely noting this hypothetical illustration for the purpose 
of showing how the law applies to the case of nebular evolu- 
tion, supposing it to have taken place, let us pass to the phe- 
nomena of the Solar System as now exhibited. Here the 
general principles above set forth are every instant exempli- 
fied. Each planet and satellite has a momentum which 
would, if acting alone, carry it forward in the direction it is 
at any instant pursuing. This momentum hence acts as a 
resistance to motion in any other direction. Each planet and 
satellite, however, is drawn by a force which, if unopposed, 
would take it in a straight line towards its primary. And the 
resultant of these two forces is that curve which it describes — 
a curve manifestly consequent on the unsymmetrical distribu- 
tion of the forces around its path. This path, when more 
closely examined, supplies us with further illustrations. For 
it is not an exact circle or ellipse ; which it would be were the 
tangential and centripetal forces the only ones concerned. 
Adjacent members of the Solar System, ever varying in their 
relative positions, cause what we call perturbations ; that is, 
slight divergences in various directions from that circle or 
ellipse which the two chief forces would produce. These per- 
turbations severally show us in minor degrees, how the line of 
movement is the resultant of all the forces engaged ; and how 
this line becomes more complicated in proportion as the 
forces are multiplied. If instead of the motions of the 



292 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 

planets and satellites as wholes, we consider the motions of 
their parts, we meet with comparatively complex illustrations. 
Every portion of the Earth's substance in its daily rotation, 
describes a curve which is in the main a resultant of that 
resistance which checks its nearer approach to the centre of 
gravity, that momentum which would carry it off at a tangent, 
and those forces of gravitation and cohesion which keep it 
from being so carried off. If this axial motion be compounded 
with the orbital motion, the course of each part is seen to be 
a much more involved one. And we find it to have a still 
greater complication on taking into account that lunar attrac- 
tion which mainly produces the tides and the precession of 
the equinoxes. 

§ 88. We come next to terrestrial changes : present ones 
as observed, and past ones as inferred by geologists. Let us 
set out with the hourly-occurring alterations in the Earth's 
atmosphere ; descend to the slower alterations in progress on 
its surface ; and then to the still slower ones going on beneath. 

Masses of air, absorbing heat from surfaces warmed by the 
sun, expand, and so lessen the weight of the atmospheric 
columns of which they are parts. Hence they offer to adjacent 
atmospheric columns, diminished lateral resistance; and these, 
moving in the directions of the diminished resistance, displace 
the expanded air ; while this, pursuing an upward course, dis- 
plays a motion along that line in which there is least pressure. 
When again, by the ascent of such heated masses from ex- 
tended areas like the torrid zone, there is produced at the 
upper surface of the atmosphere, a protuberance beyond the 
limits of equilibrium — when the air forming this protuber- 
ance begins to overflow laterally towards the poles ; it does 
so because, while the tractive force of the Earth is nearly the 
same, the lateral resistance is greatly diminished. And 
throughout the course of each current thus generated, as well 
as throughout the course of each counter-current flowing in- 
to the vacuum that is left, the direction is always the resultant 



THE DIRECTION OP MOTION. 293 

of the Earth's tractive force and the resistance offered by the 
surrounding masses of air : modified only by conflict with 
other currents similarly determined, and by collision with 
prominences on the Earth's crust. The movements 

of water, in both its gaseous and liquid states, furnish further 
examples. In conformity with the mechanical theory of heat, 
it may be shown that evaporation is the escape of particles of 
water in the direction of least resistance ; and that as the re- 
sistance (which is due to the pressure of the water diffused in 
a gaseous state) diminishes, the evaporation increases. Con- 
versely, that rushing together of particles called condensation, 
which takes place when any portion of atmospheric vapour 
has its temperature much lowered, may be interpreted as a 
diminution of the mutual pressure among the condensing 
particles, while the pressure of surrounding particles remains 
the same ; and so is a motion taking place in the direction of 
lessened resistance. In the course followed by the resulting 
rain-drops, we have one of the simplest instances of the joint 
effect of the two antagonist forces. The Earth's attraction, 
and the resistance of atmospheric currents ever varying in 
direction and intensity, give as their resultants, lines which 
incline to the horizon in countless different degrees and under- 
go perpetual variations. More clearly still is the law exem- 
plified by these same rain-drops when they reach the ground. 
In the course they take while trickling over its surface, in 
every -rill, in every larger stream, and in every river, we see 
them descending as straight as the antagonism of surround- 
ing objects permits. From moment to moment, the motion 
of water towards the Earth's centre is opposed by the solid 
matter around and under it ; and from moment to moment 
its route is the resultant of the lines of greatest traction and 
least resistance. So far from a cascade furnishing, as it seems 
to do, an exception, it furnishes but another illustration. For 
though all solid obstacles to a vertical fall of the water are 
removed, yet the water's horizontal momentum is an obstacle ; 
and the parabola in which the stream leaps from the pro- 



294 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 

jecting ledge, is generated by the combined gravitation and 
momentum. It may be well just to draw attention 

to the degree of complexity here produced in the line of 
movement by the variety of forces at work. In atmospheric 
currents, and still more clearly in water- courses (to which 
might be added ocean-streams), the route followed is too com- 
plex to be denned, save as a curve of three dimensions with 
an ever varying equation. 

The Earth's solid crust undergoes changes that supply an- 
other group of illustrations. The denudation of lands and 
the depositing of the removed sediment in new strata at the 
bottoms of seas and lakes, is a process throughout which mo- 
tion is obviously determined in the same way as is that of the 
water effecting the transport. Again, though we have no 
direct inductive proof that the forces classed as igneous, ex- 
pend themselves along lines of least resistance ; yet what little 
we know of them is in harmony with the belief that they do 
so. Earthquakes continually revisit the same localities, and 
special tracts undergo for long periods together successive 
elevations or subsidences, — facts which imply that already- 
fractured portions of the Earth's crust are those most prone 
to yield under the pressure caused by further contractions. 
The distribution of volcanoes along certain lines, as well as 
the frequent recurrence of eruptions from the same vents, 
are facts of like meaning. 

§ 89. That organic growth takes place in the direction of 
least resistance, is a proposition that has been set forth and 
illustrated by Mr. James Hinton, in the Medico- Chirurgical 
Revieiv for October, 1858. After detailing a few of the early 
observations which led him to this generalization, he for- 
mulates it thus : — 

" Organic form is the result of motion." 
" Motion takes the direction of least resist an ce." 
"Therefore organic form is the result of motion in the 
direction of least resistance." 



THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 295 

After an elucidation and defence of this position, Mr. 
Hinton proceeds to interpret, in conformity with it, sun- 
dry phenomena of development. Speaking of plants he 
says : — 

" The formation of the root furnishes a beautiful illustra- 
tion of the law of least resistance, for it grows by insinuating 
itself, cell by cell, through the interstices of the soil ; it is by 
such minute additions that it increases, winding and twisting 
whithersoever the obstacles it meets in its path determine, and 
growing there most, where the nutritive materials are added 
to it most abundantly. As we look on the roots of a mighty 
tree, it appears to us as if they had forced themselves with 
giant violence into the solid earth. But it is not so ; they 
were led on gently, cell added to cell, softly, as the dews de- 
scended, and the loosened earth made way. Once formed, in- 
deed, they expand with an enormous power, but the spongy 
condition of the growing radicles utterly forbids the supposi- 
tion that they are forced into the earth. Is it not probable, 
indeed, that the enlargement of the roots already formed may 
crack the surrounding soil, and help to make the interstices 
into which the new rootlets grow?" * * * 

" Throughout almost the whole of organic nature the spiral 
form is more or less distinctly marked. Now, motion under 
resistance takes a spiral direction, as may be seen by the mo- 
tion of a body rising or falling through water. A bubble 
rising rapidly in water describes a spiral closely resembling 
a corkscrew, and a body of moderate specific gravity dropped 
into water may be seen to fall in a curved direction, the 
spiral tendency of which may be distinctly observed. 
* * * In this prevailing spiral form of organic 
bodies, therefore, it appears to me, that there is presented a 
strong prima facie case for the view I have maintained. 
* * The spiral form of the branches of many 
trees is very apparent, and the universally spiral arrangement 
of the leaves around the stem of plants needs only to be referred 
to. * * * The heart commences as a spiral turn, 



296 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 

and in its perfect form a manifest spiral may be traced through 
the left ventricle, right ventricle, right auricle, left auricle 
and appendix. And what is the spiral turn in which the 
heart commences but a necessary result of the lengthening, 
under a limit, of the cellular mass of which it then con- 
sists ?" * * * 

"Every one must have noticed the peculiar curling up of 
the young leaves of the common fern. The appearance is as 
if the leaf were rolled up, but in truth this form is merely a 
phenomenon of growth. The curvature results from the in- 
crease of the leaf, it is only another form of the wrinkling up, 
or turning at right angles by extension under limit." 

6 ' The rolling up or imbrication of the petals in many flower- 
buds is a similar thing ; at an early period the small petals 
may be seen lying side by side, afterwards growing within the 
capsule, they become folded round one another." * * * 

" If a flower-bud be opened at a sufficiently early period, 
the stamens will be found as if moulded in tho cavity between 
the pistil and the corolla, which cavity the antlers exactly 
fill ; the stalks lengthen at an after period. I have noticed 
also in a few instances, that in those flowers in which the 
petals are imbricated, or twisted together, the pistil is taper- 
ing as growing up between the petals ; in some flowers which 
have the petals so arranged in the bud as to form a dome (as 
the hawthorn ; e. g.), the pistil is flattened at the apex, and 
in the bud occupies a space precisely limited by the stamens 
below, and the enclosing petals above and at the sides. I 
have not, however, satisfied myself that this holds good in all 
cases." 

Without endorsing all Mr. Hinton's illustrations, to 
some of which exception might be taken, his conclusion 
may be accepted' as a large instalment of the truth. It is, 
however, to be remarked, that in the case of organic growth, 
as in all other cases, the line of movement is in strictness 
the resultant of tractive and resistant forces; and that 
the tractive forces here form so considerable an element 



THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 297 

that the formula is scarcely complete without them. The 
shapes of plants are manifestly modified by gravitation : 
the direction of each branch is not what it would have been 
were the tractive force of the Earth absent ; and every flower 
and leaf is somewhat altered in the course of development by 
the weight of its parts. Though in animals such effects are 
less conspicuous, yet the instances in which flexible organs 
have their directions in great measure determined by gravity, 
justify the assertion that throughout the whole organism the 
forms of parts must be affected by this force. 

The organic movements which constitute growth, are not, 
however, the only organic movements to be interpreted. 
There are also those which constitute function. And through- 
out these the same general principles are discernible. That 
the vessels along which blood, lymph, bile, and all the 
secretions, find their ways, are channels of least resistance, 
is a fact almost too conspicuous to be named as an illustration. 
Less conspicuous, however, is the truth, that the currents set- 
ting along these vessels are affected by the tractive force of 
the Earth : witness varicose veins ; witness the relief to an 
inflamed part obtained by raising it ; witness the congestion 
of head and face produced by stooping. And in the fact that 
dropsy in the legs gets greater by day and decreases at night, 
while, conversely, that cedematous fullness under the eyes 
common in debility, grows worse during the hours of reclin- 
ing and decreases after getting up, shows us how the trans- 
udation of fluid through the walls of the capillaries, varies ac- 
cording as change of position changes the effect of gravity in 
different parts of the body. 

It may be well in passing just to note the bearing of the ' 
principle on the development of species. From a dynamic 
point of view, "natural selection" is the evolution of Life 
along lines of least resistance. The multiplication of any kind 
of plant or animal in localities that are favourable to it, is a 
growth where the antagonistic forces are less than elsewhere. 
And the preservation of varieties that succeed better than their 
14* 



298 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 

allies in coping with surrounding conditions, is the continu- 
ance of vital movement in those directions where the obstacles 
to it are most eluded. 

§ 90. Throughout the phenomena of mind the law enunci- 
ated is not so readily established. In a large part of them, 
as those of thought and emotion, there is no perceptible move- 
ment. Even in sensation and volition, which show us in one 
part of the body an effect produced by a force applied to an- 
other part, the intermediate movement is inferential rather 
than visible. Such indeed are the difficulties that it is not 
possible here to do more than briefly indicate the proofs which 
might be given did space permit. 

Supposing the various forces throughout an organism to be 
previously in equilibrium, then any part which becomes the 
seat of a further force, added or liberated, must be one from 
which the force, being resisted by smaller forces around, will 
initiate motion towards some other part of the organism. If 
elsewhere in the organism there is a point at which force is 
being expended, and which so is becoming minus a force which 
it before had, instead of plus a force which it before had not, 
and thus is made a point at which the re-action against sur- 
rounding forces is diminished ; then, manifestly, a motion tak- 
ing place between the first and the last of these points is a 
motion along the line of least resistance. Now a sensation 
implies a force added to, or evolved in, that part of the organ- 
ism which is its seat ; while a mechanical movement implies 
an expenditure or loss of force in that part of the organism 
which is its seat. Hence if, as we find to be the fact, motion is 
habitually propagated from those parts of an organism to which 
the external world adds forces in the shape of nervous impres- 
sions, to those parts of an organism which react on the external 
world through muscular contractions, it is simply a fulfil- 
ment of the law above enunciated. From this general 
conclusion we may pass to a more special one. When there 
is anything in the circumstances of an animal's life, involving 






THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 299 

that a sensation in one particular place is habitually followed 
by a contraction in another particular place — when there is 
thus a frequently-repeated motion through the organism be- 
tween these places ; what must be the result as respects the 
line along which the motions take place ? Restoration of equi- 
librium between the points at which the forces have been 
increased and decreased, must take place through some chan- 
nel. If this channel is affected by the discharge — if the 
obstructive action of the tissues traversed, involves any 
reaction upon them, deducting from their obstructive 
power ; then a subsequent motion between these two points 
will meet with less resistance along this channel than the pre- 
vious motion met with; and will consequently take this 
channel still more decidedly. If so, every repetition will still 
further diminish the resistance offered by this route; and 
hence will gradually be formed between the two a permanent 
line of communication, differing greatly from the surrounding 
tissue in respect of the ease with which force traverses it. "We 
see, therefore, that if between a particular impression and a 
particular motion associated with it, there is established a 
connexion producing what is called reflex action, the law that 
motion follows the line of least resistance, and that, if the 
conditions remain constant, resistance in any direction is dimin- 
ished by motion occurring in that direction, supplies an expla- 
nation. Without further details it will be manifest that 
a like interpretation may be given to the succession of all 
other nervous changes. If in the surrounding world there 
are objects, attributes, or actions, that usually occur together, 
the effects severally produced by them in the organism will be- 
come so connected by those repetitions which we call experience, 
that they also will occur together. In proportion to the fre- 
quency with which any external connexion of phenomena is 
experienced, will be the strength of the answering internal con- 
nexion of nervous states. Thus there will arise all degrees of 
cohesion among nervous states, as there are all degrees of com- 
monness among the surrounding co-existences and sequences 



300 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 

that generate them : whence must result a general correspond- 
ence between associated ideas and associated actions in the 
environment.* 

The relation between emotions and actions may be similarly 
construed. As a first illustration let us observe what happens 
with emotions that are undirected by volitions. These, like 
feelings in general, expend themselves in generating organic 
changes, and chiefly in muscular contractions. As was 
pointed out in the last chapter, there result movements of 
the involuntary and voluntary muscles, that are great in pro- 
portion as the emotions are strong. It remains here to be 
pointed out, however, that the order in which these muscles 
are affected is explicable only on the principle above set forth. 
Thus, a pleasurable or painful state of mind of but slight 
intensity, does little more than increase the pulsations of the 
heart. Why ? For the reason that the relation between 
nervous excitement and vascular contraction, being common 
to every genus and species of feeling, is the one of most 
frequent repetition ; that hence the nervous connexion is, in 
the way above shown, the one which offers the least resistance 
to a discharge ; and is therefore the one along which a feeble 
force produces motion. A sentiment or passion that is some- 
what stronger, affects not only the heart but the muscles of 
the face, and especially those around the mouth. Here the 
like explanation applies ; since these muscles, being both com- 
paratively small, and, for purposes of speech, perpetually 
used, offer less resistance than other voluntary muscles 
to the nervo-motor force. By a further increase of emotion 
the respiratory and vocal muscles become perceptibly excited. 
Finally, under strong passion, the muscles in general of the 
trunk and limbs are violently contracted. "Without saying 
that the facts can be thus interpreted in all their details (a 

* This paragraph is a re-statement, somewhat amplified, of an idea set forth in 
the Medico- Chirurgical Review for January, 1859 (pp. 189 and 190) ; and con- 
tains the germ of the intended fifth part of the Principles of Psychology, which 
was withheld for the reasons given in the preface to that work. 



THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 



301 



task requiring data impossible to obtain) it may be safely said 
that the order of excitation is from muscles that are small and 
frequently acted on, to those which are larger and less fre- 
quently acted on. The single instance of laughter, which is 
an undirected discharge of feeling that affects first the 
muscles round the mouth, then those of the vocal and respir- 
atory apparatus, then those of the limbs, and then those of 
the spine ; * suffices to show that when no special route is 
opened for it, a force evolved in the nervous centres produces 
motion along channels which offer the least resistance, and if 
it is too great to escape by these, produces motion along 
channels offering successively greater resistance. 

Probably it will be thought impossible to extend this 
reasoning so as to include volitions. Yet we are not without 
evidence that the transition from special desires to special 
muscular acts, conforms to the same principle. It may be 
shown that the mental antecedents of a voluntary movement, 
are antecedents which temporarily make the line along which 
this movement takes place, the line of least resistance. For 
a volition, suggested as it necessarily is by some previous 
thought connected with it by associations that determine the 
transition, is itself a representation of the movements that are 
willed, and of their sequences. But to represent in conscious- 
ness certain of our own movements, is partially to arouse the 
sensations accompanying such movements, inclusive of those 
of muscular tension — is partially to excite the appropriate 
motor-nerves and all the other nerves implicated. That is to 
say, the volition is itself an incipient discharge along a line 
which previous experiences have rendered a line of least re- 
sistance. And the passing of volition into action is simply a 
completion of the discharge. 

One corollary from this must be noted before proceeding ; 
namely, that the particular set of muscular movements by 
which any object of desire is reached, are movements imply- 

* For details see a paper on " The Physiology of Laughter," published in 
Macmillan's Magazine for March 1860. 



302 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 

ing the smallest total of forces to be overcome. As each feel- 
ing generates motion along the line of least resistance, it is 
tolerably clear that a group of feelings, constituting a more 
or less complex desire, will generate motion along a series of 
lines of least resistance. That is to say, the desired end will 
be achieved with the smallest expenditure of effort. Should 
it be objected that through want of knowledge or want of 
skill, a man often pursues the more laborious of two courses, 
and so overcomes a larger total of opposing forces than was 
necessary ; the reply is, that relatively to his mental state the 
course he takes is that which presents the fewest difficulties. 
Though there is another which in the abstract is easier, yet 
his ignorance of it, or inability to adopt it, is, physically con- 
sidered, the existence of an insuperable obstacle to the dis- 
charge of his energies in that direction. Experience obtained 
by himself, or communicated by others, has not established 
in- him such channels of nervous communication as are re- 
quired to make this better course the course of least re- 
sistance to him. 

§ 91. As in individual animals, inclusive of man, motion 
follows lines of least resistance, it is to be inferred that among 
aggregations of men, the like will hold good. The changes 
in a society, being due to the joint actions of its members, the 
courses of such changes will be determined as are those of all 
other changes wrought by composition of forces. 

Thus when we contemplate a society as an organism, and 
observe the direction of its growth, we find this direction to 
be that in which the average of opposing forces is the least. 
Its units have energies to be expended in self-maintenance 
and reproduction. These energies are met by various 
environing energies that are antagonistic to them — those of 
geological origin, those of climate, of wild animals, of other 
human races with whom they are at enmity or in competi- 
tion. And the tracts the society spreads over, are those in 
which there is the smallest total antagonism. Or, reducing 



THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 303 

the matter to its ultimate terms, we may say that these social 
units have jointly and severally to preserve themselves and 
their offspring from those inorganic and organic forces which 
are ever tending to destroy them (either indirectly by oxi- 
dation and by undue abstraction of heat, or directly by bodily 
mutilation) ; that these forces are either counteracted by 
others which are available in the shape of food, clothing, 
habitations, and appliances of defence, or are, as far as may 
be, eluded ; and that population spreads in whichever di- 
rections there is the readiest escape from these forces, or the 
least exertion in obtaining the materials for resisting them, 
or both. For these reasons it happens that fertile 

valleys where water and vegetal produce abound, are early 
peopled. Sea-shores, too, supplying a large amount of easily- 
gathered food, are lines along which mankind have common- 
ly spread. The general fact that, so far as we can judge from 
the traces left by them, large societies first appeared in those 
tropical regions where the fruits of the earth are obtainable 
with comparatively little exertion, and where the cost of 
maintaining bodily heat is but slight, is a fact of like mean- 
ing. And to these instances may be added the allied one 
daily furnished by emigration ; which we see going on to- 
wards countries presenting the fewest obstacles to the 
self-preservation of individuals, and therefore to national 
growth. Similarly with that resistance to the move- 

ments of a society which neighbouring societies offer. Each 
of the tribes or nations inhabiting any region, increases in 
numbers until it outgrows its means of subsistence. In each 
there is thus a force ever pressing outwards on to adjacent 
areas — a force antagonized by like forces in the tribes or 
nations occupying those areas. And the ever-recurring wars 
that result — the conquests of weaker tribes or nations, and 
the over- running of their territories by the victors, are 
instances of social movements taking place in the directions 
of least resistance. Nor do the conquered peoples, when 
they escape extermination or enslavement, fail to show us 



304 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 

movements that are similarly determined. For migrating as 
they do to less fertile regions — taking refuge in deserts or 
among mountains — moving in a direction where the re- 
sistance to social growth is comparatively great ; they still do 
this only under an excess of pressure in all other directions : 
the physical obstacles to self-preservation they encounter, 
being really less than the obstacles offered by the enemies 
from whom they fly. 

Internal social movements may also be thus interpreted. 
Localities naturally fitted for producing particular commodi- 
ties — that is, localities in which such commodities are got at 
the least cost of force — that is, localities in which the desires 
for these commodities meet with the least resistance ; become 
localities especially devoted to the obtainment of these com- 
modities. Where soil and climate render wheat a profitable 
crop, or a crop from which the greatest amount of life- sustain- 
ing power is gained by a given quantity of effort, the growth 
of wheat becomes the dominant industry. Where wheat can- 
not be economically produced, oats, or rye, or maize, or rice, 
or potatoes, is the agricultural staple. Along sea-shores men 
support themselves with least effort by catching fish ; and 
hence choose fishing as an occupation. And in places that 
are rich in coal or metallic ores, the population, finding that 
labour devoted to the raising of these materials brings a 
larger return of food and clothing than when otherwise di- 
rected, becomes a population of miners. This last 
instance introduces us to the phenomena of exchange ; which 
equally illustrate the general law. For the practice of 
barter begins as soon as it facilitates the fulfilment of men's 
desires, by diminishing the exertion needed to reach the ob- 
jects of those desires. When instead of growing his own 
corn, weaving his own cloth, sewing his own shoes, each man 
began to confine himself to farming, or weaving, or shoemak- 
ing; it was because each found it more laborious to make 
everything he wanted, than to make a great quantity of one 
thing and barter the surplus for the rest : by exchange, each 



THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 305 

procured the necessaries of life without encountering so much 
resistance. Moreover, in deciding what commodity to pro- 
duce, each citizen was, as he is at the present day, guided in 
the same manner. For besides those local conditions which 
determine whole sections of a society towards the industries 
easiest for them, there are also individual conditions and indi- 
vidual aptitudes which to each citizen render certain occupa- 
tions preferable ; and in choosing those forms of activity 
which their special circumstances and faculties dictate, 
these social units are severally moving towards the objects 
of their desires in the directions which present to them the 
fewest obstacles. The process of transfer which com- 

merce pre-supposes, supplies another series of examples. So 
long as the forces to be overcome in procuring any necessary 
of life in the district where it is consumed, are less than the 
forces to be overcome in procuring it from an adjacent dis- 
trict, exchange does not take place. But when the adjacent 
district produces it with an economy that is not out-balanced 
by cost of transit — when the distance is so small and the 
route so easy that the labour of conveyance plus the labour 
of production is less than the labour of production in the con- 
suming district, transfer commences. Movement in the di- 
rection of least resistance is also seen in the establishment of 
the channels along which intercourse takes place. At the 
outset, when goods are carried on the backs of men and 
horses, the paths chosen are those which combine shortness 
with levelness and freedom from obstacles — those which are 
achieved with the smallest exertion. And in the subsequent 
formation of each highway, the course taken is that which 
deviates horizontally from a straight line so far only as is 
needful to avoid vertical deviations entailing greater labour 
in draught. The smallest total of obstructive forces deter- 
mines the route, even in seemingly exceptional cases ; as 
where a detour is made to avoid the opposition of a land- 
owner. All subsequent improvements, ending in macada- 
mized roads, canals, and railways, which reduce the an- 



306 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 

tagonism of friction and gravity to a minimum, exemplify 
the same truth. After there comes to be a choice of roads 
between one point and another, we still see that the road 
chosen is that along which the cost of transit is the least: 
cost being the measure of resistance. Even where, time being 
a consideration, the more expensive route is followed, it is so 
because the loss of time involves loss of force. "When, 

division of labour having been carried to a considerable ex- 
tent and means of communication made easy, there arises a 
marked localization of industries, the relative growths of the 
populations devoted to them may be interpreted on the same 
principle. The influx of people to each industrial centre, as 
well as the rate of multiplication of those already inhabiting 
it, is determined by the payment for labour ; that is — by the 
quantity of commodities which a given amount of effort will 
obtain. To say that artisans flock to places where, in conse- 
quence of facilities for production, an extra proportion of pro- 
duce can be given in the shape of wages ; is to say that they 
flock to places where there are the smallest obstacles to the 
support of themselves and families. Hence, the rapid in- 
crease of number which occurs in such places, is really a 
social growth at points where the opposing forces are the 
least. 

Nor is the law less clearly to be traced in those functional 
changes daily going on. The flow of capital into businesses 
yielding the largest returns ; the buying in the cheapest 
market and selling in the dearest ; the introduction of more 
economical modes of manufacture ; the development of better 
agencies for distribution ; and all those variations in the 
currents of trade that are noted in our newspapers and tele- 
grams from hour to hour ; exhibit movement taking place in 
directions where it is met by the smallest total of opposing 
forces. For if we analyze each of these changes — if instead 
of interest on capital we read surplus of products which re- 
mains after maintenance of labourers; if we so interpret 
large interest or large surplus to imply labour expended with 



THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 307 

the greatest results ; and if labour expended with the greatest 
results means muscular action so directed as to evade ob- 
stacles as far as possible ; we see that all these commercial 
phenomena are complicated motions set up along lines of 
least resistance. 

Objections of two opposite kinds will perhaps be made to 
these sociological applications of the law. By some it may- 
be said that the term force as here used, is used metaphori- 
cally — that to speak of men as impelled in certain directions 
by certain desires, is a figure of speech and not the statement 
of a physical fact. The reply is, that the foregoing illustra- 
tions are to be interpreted literally, and that the processes de- 
scribed are physical ones. The pressure of hunger is an 
actual force — a sensation implying some state of nervous ten- 
sion ; and the muscular action which the sensation prompts 
is really a discharge of it in the shape of bodily motion — a 
discharge which, on analyzing the mental acts involved, will 
be found to follow lines of least resistance. Hence the 
motions of a society whose members are impelled by this or 
any other desire, are actually, and not metaphorically, to be 
understood in the manner shown. An opposite ob- 

jection may possibly be, that the several illustrations given 
are elaborated truisms ; and that the law of direction of mo- 
tion being once recognized, the fact that social movements, 
in common with all others, must conform to it, follows inevit- 
ably. To this it may be rejoined, that a mere abstract asser- 
tion that social movements must do this, would carry no con- 
viction to the majority ; and that it is needful to show hoiv 
they do it. For social evolution to be interpreted after the 
method proposed, it is requisite that such generalisations as 
those of political economy shall be reduced to equivalent pro- 
positions expressed in terms of force and motion. 

Social movements of these various orders severally conform 
to the two derivative principles named at the outset. In the 
first place we may observe how, once set up in given di- 
r3ctions, such movements, like all others, tend to continue in 



308 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 

these directions. A commercial mania or panic, a current 
of commodities, a social custom, a political agitation, or a 
popular delusion, maintains its course for a long time after its 
original source has ceased ; and requires antagonistic forces 
to arrest it. In the second place it is to be noted that in 
proportion to the complexity of social forces is the tortuous- 
ness of social movements. The involved series of muscular 
contractions gone through by the artizan, that he may get 
the wherewithal to buy a loaf lying at the baker's next door, 
show us how extreme becomes the indirectness of motion 
when the agencies at work become very numerous — a truth 
still better illustrated by the more public social actions ; as 
those which end in bringing a successful man of business, 
towards the close of his life, into parliament. 

§ 92. And now of the general truth set forth in this 
chapter, as of that dealt with in the last, let us ask — what is 
our ultimate evidence ? Must we accept it simply as an em- 
pirical generalization ? or is it to be established as a corollary 
from a still deeper truth ? The reader will anticipate the 
answer. "We shall find it deducible from that datum of 
consciousness which underlies all science. 

Suppose several tractive forces, variously directed, to be act- 
ing on a given body. By what is known among mathema- 
ticians as the composition of forces, there may be found for 
any two of these, a single force of such amount and direction 
as to produce on the body an exactly equal effect. If in the 
direction of each of them there be drawn a straight line, 
and if the lengths of these two straight lines be made pro- 
portionate to the amounts of the forces ; and if from the end 
of each line there be drawn a line parallel to the other, so 
as to complete a parallelogram ; then the diagonal of this 
parallelogram represents the amount and direction of a force 
that is equivalent to the two. Such a resultant force, as it is 
called, may be found for any pair of forces throughout the 
group. Similarly, for any pair of such resultants a single 



THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 309 

resultant may be found. And by repeating this course, all of 
them may be reduced to two. If these two are equal and 
opposite — that is, if there is no line of greatest traction, 
motion does not take place. If they are opposite but not 
equal, motion takes place in the direction of the greater. 
And if they are neither equal nor opposite, motion takes 
place in the direction of their resultant. For in either of 
these cases there is an unantagonized force in one direction. 
And this residuary force that is not neutralized by an oppos- 
ing one, must move the body in the direction in which it is 
acting. To assert the contrary is to assert that a force can 
be expended without effect — without generating an equiva- 
lent force ; and by so implying that force can cease to exist, 
this involves a denial of the persistence of force. It 

needs scarcely be added that if in place of tractions we take 
resistances, the argument equally holds ; and that it holds also 
where both tractions and resistances are concerned. Thus 
the law that motion follows the line of greatest traction, or 
the line of least resistance, or the resultant of the two, is a 
necessary deduction from that primordial truth which tran- 
*scends proof. 

Reduce the proposition to its simplest form, and it becomes 
still more obviously consequent on the persistence of force. 
Suppose two weights suspended over a pulley or from the ends 
of an equal-armed lever ; or better still — suppose two men 
pulling against each other. In such cases we say that the 
heavier weight will descend, and that the stronger man 
will draw the weaker towards him. But now, if we are asked 
how we know which is the heavier weight or the stronger 
man ; we can only reply that it is the one producing motion 
in the direction of its pull. Our only evidence of excess of 
force is the movement it produces. But if of two opposing 
tractions we can know one as greater than the other only by 
the motion it generates in its own direction, then the assertion 
that motion occurs in the direction of greatest traction is a 
truism. When, going a step further back, we seek a warrant 



310 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 

for the assumption that of the two conflicting forces, that is 
the greater which produces motion in its own direction, we 
find no other than the consciousness that such part of the 
greater force as is unneutralized by the lesser, must produce 
its effect — the consciousness that this residuary force cannot 
disappear, but must manifest itself in some equivalent change 
— the consciousness that force is persistent. Here too, 

as before, it may be remarked that no amount of varied illus- 
trations, like those of which this chapter mainly consists, can 
give greater certainty to the conclusion thus immediately 
drawn from the ultimate datum of consciousness. For in all 
cases, as in the simple ones just given, we can identify the 
greatest force only by the resulting motion. It is impossible 
for us ever to get evidence of the occurrence of motion in any 
other direction than that of the greatest force ; since our 
measure of relative greatness among forces is their relative 
power of generating motion. And clearly, while the compara- 
tive greatness of forces is thus determined, no multiplication 
of instances can add certainty to a law of direction of move- 
ment which follows immediately from the persistence of force. 
From this same primordial truth, too, may be deduced the 
principle that motion once set up along any line, becomes it- 
self a cause of subsequent motion along that line. The me- 
chanical axiom that, if left to itself, matter moving in any di- 
rection will continue in that direction with undiminished 
velocity, is but an indirect assertion of the persistence of 
force ; since it is an assertion that the force manifested in 
the transfer of a body along a certain length of a certain 
line in a certain time, cannot disappear without producing 
some equal manifestation — a manifestation which, in the ab- 
sence of conflicting forces, must be a further transfer in the 
same direction at the same velocity. In the case of 

matter traversing matter the like, inference is necessitated. 
Here indeed the actions are much more complicated.. A liquid 
that follows a certain channel through or over a solid, as water 
along the Earth's surface, loses part of its motion in the shape 



THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 311 

of heat, through friction and collision with the matters form- 
ing its bed. A further amount of its motion may be absorbed 
in overcoming forces which it liberates ; as when it loosens a 
mass which falls into, and blocks up, its channel. But after 
these deductions by transformation into other modes of force, 
any further deduction from the motion of the water is at the 
expense of a reaction on the channel, which by so much di- 
minishes its obstructive power : such reaction being shown in 
the motion acquired by the detached portions which are car- 
ried away. The cutting out of river-courses is a perpetual 
illustration of this truth. Still more involved is the 

case of motion passing through matter by impulse from part 
to part ; as a nervous discharge through animal tissue. Some 
chemical change may be wrought along the route traversed, 
which may render it less fit than before for conveying a current. 
Or the motion may itself be in part metamorphosed into some 
obstructive form of force ; as in metals, the conducting power 
of which is, for the time, decreased by the heat which the 
passage of electricity itself generates. The real question is, 
however, what structural modification, if any, is produced 
throughout the matter traversed, apart from incidental dis- 
turbing forces — apart from everything but the necessary re- 
sistance of the matter : that, namely, which results from the 
inertia of its units. If we confine our attention to that 
part of the motion which, escaping transformation, continues 
its course, then it is a corollary from the persistence of 
force that as much of this remaining motion as is taken 
up in changing the positions of the units, must leave these by 
so much less able to obstruct subsequent motion in the same 
direction. 

Thus in all the changes heretofore and at present displayed 
by the Solar System ; in all those that have gone on and are 
still going on in the Earth's crust ; in all processes of organic 
development and function ; in all mental actions and the 
effects they work on the body ; and in all modifications of 
structure and activity in societies ; the implied movements are 



312 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 

of necessity determined in the manner above set forth. Every 
alteration in the arrangement of parts, constituting Evolution 
under each of its phases, must conform to this universal prin- 
ciple. Wherever we see motion, its direction must be that of 
the greatest force. And wherever we see the greatest force 
to be acting in a given direction, in that direction motion must 
ensue. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 

§ 93. "When the pennant of a vessel lying becalmed first 

shows the coming breeze, it does so by gentle undulations 

that travel from its fixed to its free end. Presently the sails 

begin to flap ; and their blows against the mast increase in 

rapidity as the breeze rises. Even when, being fully bellied 

out, they are in great part steadied by the strain of the yards 

and cordage, their free edges tremble with each stronger 

gust. And should there come a gale, the jar that is felt on 

laying hold of the shrouds shows that the rigging vibrates ; 

while the rush and whistle of the wind prove that in it, also, 

rapid undulations are generated. Ashore the conflict between 

the current of air and the things it meets results in a like 

rhythmical action. The leaves all shiver in the blast ; each 

branch oscillates ; and every exposed tree sways to and fro. 

The blades of grass and dried bents in the meadows, and still 

better the stalks in the neighbouring corn-fields, exhibit the 

same rising and falling movement. Nor do the more stable 

objects fail to do the like, though in a less manifest fashion ; 

as witness the shudder that may be felt throughout a house 

during the paroxysms of a violent storm. Streams of 

water produce in opposing objects the same general effects as 

do streams of air. Submerged weeds growing in the middle 

of a brook, undulate from end to end. Branches brought 

down by the last flood, and left entangled at the bottom 

15 



314 THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 

where the current is rapid, are thrown into a state of up and 
down movement that is slow or quick in proportion as they 
are large or small ; and where, as in great rivers like the 
Mississippi, whole trees are thus held, the name " sawyers," 
by which they are locally known, sufficiently describes the 
rhythm produced in them. Note again the effect of the 
antagonism between the current and its channel. In shallow 
places, where the action of the bottom on the water flowing 
over it is visible, we see a ripple produced — a series of undula- 
tions. And if we study the action and re-action going on 
between the moving fluid and its banks, we still find the 
principle illustrated, though in a different way. For in every 
rivulet, as in the mapped-out course of every great river, the 
bends of the stream from side to side throughout its tortuous 
course constitute a lateral undulation — an undulation so in- 
evitable that even an artificially straightened channel is 
eventually changed into a serpentine one. Analogous phe- 
nomena may be observed where the water is stationary and 
the solid matter moving. A stick drawn laterally through 
the water with much force, proves by the throb which it 
communicates to the hand that it is in a state of vibration. 
Even where the moving body is massive, it only requires that 
great force should be applied to get a sensible effect of like 
kind : instance the screw of a screw- steamer, which instead 
of a smooth rotation falls into a rapid rhythm that sends a 
tremor through the whole vessel. The sound which 

results when a bow is drawn over a violin- string, shows us 
vibrations produced by the movement of a solid over a solid. 
In lathes and planing machines, the attempt to take off a 
thick shaving causes a violent jar of the whole apparatus, and 
the production of a series of waves on the iron or wood that 
is cut. Every boy in scraping his slate-pencil finds it 
scarcely possible to help making a ridged surface. If you 
roll a ball along the ground or over the ice, there is always 
more ok less up and down movement — a movement that is 
visible while the velocity is considerable, but becomes too 



THE BHYTHM OF MOTION. 315 

small and rapid to be seen by the unaided eye as the velocity 
diminishes. However smooth the rails, and however per- 
fectly built the carriages, a railway- train inevitably gets into 
oscillations, both lateral and vertical. Even where moving 
matter is suddenly arrested by collision, the law is still illus- 
trated ; for both the body striking and the body struck are 
made to tremble ; and trembling is rhythmical movement. 
Little as we habitually observe it, it is yet certain that the 
impulses our actions impress from moment to moment on 
surrounding objects, are propagated through them in vibra- 
tions. It needs but to look through a telescope of high 
power, to be convinced that each pulsation of the heart gives 
a jar to the whole room. If we pass to motions of 

another order — those namely which takes place in the etherial 
medium — we still find the same thing. Every fresh dis- 
covery confirms the hypothesis that light consists of undula- 
tions. The rays of heat, too, are now found to have a like 
fundamental nature ; their undulations differing from those 
of light only in their comparative length. Nor do the move- 
ments of electricity fail to furnish us with an illustration ; 
though one of a different order. The northern aurora may 
often be observed to pulsate with waves of greater brightness ; 
and the electric discharge through a vacuum shows us by its 
stratified appearance that the current is not uniform, but 
comes in gushes of greater and lesser intensity. Should 

it be said that at any rate there are some motions, as those of 
projectiles, which are not rhythmical, the reply is, that the 
exception is apparent only ; and that these motions would be 
rhythmical if they were not interrupted. It is common to 
assert that the trajectory of a cannon ball is a parabola ; and 
it is true that (omitting atmospheric resistance) the curve de- 
scribed differs so slightly from a parabola that it may practi- 
cally be regarded as one. But, strictly speaking, it is a por- 
tion of an extremely eccentric ellipse, having the Earth's 
centre of gravity for its remoter focus ; and but for its arrest 
by the substance of the Earth, the cannon ball wou!4 travel 



316 ' THE HHYTHM OF MOTION. 

round that focus and return to the point whence it started ; 
again to repeat this slow rhythm. Indeed, while seeming at 
first sight to do the reverse, the discharge of a cannon 
furnishes one of the best illustrations of the principle enunci- 
ated. The explosion produces violent undulations in the 
surrounding air. The whizz of the shot, as it flies towards 
its mark, is due to another series of atmospheric undulations. 
And the movement to and from the Earth's centre, which the 
cannon ball is beginning to perform, being checked by solid 
matter, is transformed into a rhythm of another order ; 
namely, the vibration which the blow sends through neigh- 
bouring bodies.* 

Rhythm is very generally not simple but compound. 
There are usually at work various forces, causing undulations 
differing in rapidity ; and hence it continually happens that 
besides the primary rhythms there are secondary rhythms, 
produced by the periodic coincidence and antagonism of the 
primary ones. Double, triple, and even quadruple rhythms, 
are thus generated. One of the simplest instances is afforded 
by what in acoustics are known as "beats :" recurring inter- 
vals of sound and silence which are perceived when two notes 
of nearly the same pitch are struck together ; and which are 
due to the alternate correspondence and antagonism of the 
atmospheric waves. In like manner the various phenomena 
due to what is called interference of light, severally result 
from the periodic agreement and disagreement of etherial 
undulations — undulations which, by alternately intensi- 
fying and neutralizing each other, produce intervals of 
increased and diminished light. On the sea-shore may be 
noted sundry instances of compound rhythm. "We have 
that of the tides, in which the daily rise and fall under- 
goes a fortnightly increase and decrease, due to the alter- 
nate coincidence and antagonism of the solar and lunar 

* After having for some years supposed myself alone in the helief that all mo- 
tion is rhythmical, I discovered that my Mend Professor Tyndall also held this 
doctrine. 



THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 317 

attractions. We have again that which is perpetually 
furnished by the surface of the sea : every large wave bear- 
ing smaller ones on its sides, and these still smaller ones ; 
with the result that each flake of foam, along with the por- 
tion of water bearing it, undergoes minor ascents and descents 
of several orders while it is being raised and lowered by the 
greater billows. A quite different and very interesting 
example of compound rhythm, occurs in the little rills which, 
at low tide, run over the sand out of the shingle banks above. 
Where the channel of one of these is narrow, and the stream 
runs strongly, the sand at the bottom is raised into a series 
of ridges corresponding to the ripple of the water. On 
watching for a short time, it will be seen that these ridges 
are being raised higher and the ripple growing stronger ; 
until at length, the action becoming violent, the whole series 
of ridges is suddenly swept away, the stream runs smoothly, 
and the process commences afresh. Instances of still more 
complex rhythms might be added ; but they will come more 
appropriately in connexion with the several forms of Evolu- 
tion, hereafter to be dealt with. 

From the ensemble of the facts as above set forth, it will be 
seen that rhythm results wherever there is a conflict of forces 
not in equilibrium. If the antagonist forces at any point are 
balanced, there is rest ; and in the absence of motion there 
can of course be no rhythm. But if instead of a balance 
there is an excess of force in one direction — if, as necessarily 
follows, motion is set up in that direction ; then for that 
motion to continue uniformly in that direction, it is requisite 
that the moving matter should, notwithstanding its unceasing 
change of place, present unchanging relations to the sources 
of force by which its motion is produced and opposed. This 
however is impossible. Every further transfer through space 
must alter the ratio between the forces concerned — must in- 
crease or decrease the predominance of one force over the 
other — must prevent uniformity of movement. And if the 
movement cannot be uniform, then, in the absence of accelera- 



318 THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 

tion or retardation continued through infinite time and space, 
(results which cannot be conceived) the only alternative is 
rhythm. 

A secondary conclusion must not be omitted. In the last 
chapter we saw that motion is never absolutely rectilinear ; 
and here it remains to be added that, as a consequence, rhythm 
is necessarily incomplete. A truly rectilinear rhythm can 
arise only when the opposing forces are in exactly the same 
line ; and the probabilities against this are in finitely great. 
To generate a perfectly circular rhythm, the two forces con- 
cerned must be exactly at right angles to each other, and 
must have exactly a certain ratio ; and against this the pro- 
babilities are likewise infinitely great. All other proportions 
and directions of the two forces will produce an ellipse of 
greater or less eccentricity. And when, as indeed always 
happens, above two forces are engaged, the curve described 
must be more complex ; and cannot exactly repeat itself. So 
that in fact throughout nature, this action and re-action of 
forces never brings about a complete return to a previous 
state. "Where the movement is very involved, and especially 
where it is that of some aggregate whose units are partially 
independent, anything like a regular curve is no longer 
traceable ; we see nothing more than a general oscillation. 
And on the completion of any periodic movement, the degree 
in which the state arrived at differs from the state de- 
parted from, is usually marked in proportion] as the influences 
at work are numerous. 

§ 94. That spiral arrangement so general among the more 
difTused nebulas — an arrangement which must be assumed by 
matter moving towards a centre of gravity through a resist- 
ing medium — shows us the progressive establishment of 
revolution, and therefore of rhythm, in those remote spaces 
which the nebulae occupy. Double stars, moving round com- 
mon centres of gravity in periods some of which are now 
ascertained, exhibit settled rhythmical actions in distant parts 



THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 319 

of our siderial system. And another fact which, though of a 
different order, has a like general significance, is furnished by 
variable stars — stars which alternately brighten and fade. 

The periodicities of the planets, satellities, and comets, are 
so familiar that it would be inexcusable to name them, were 
it not needful here to point out that they are so many grand 
illustrations of this general law of movement. But besides 
the revolutions of these bodies in their orbits (all more or less 
excentric) and their rotations on their axes, the Solar System 
presents us with various rhythms of a less manifest and more 
complex kind. In each planet and satellite there is the revo- 
lution of the nodes — a slow change in the position of the 
orbit-plane, which after completing itself commences afresh. 
There is the gradual alteration in the length of the axis 
major of the orbit; and also of its excentricity : both of 
which are rhythmical alike in the sense that they alternate 
between maxima and minima, and in the sense that the pro- 
gress from one extreme to the other is not uniform, but is 
made with fluctuating velocity. Then, too, there is the revo- 
lution of the line of apsides, which in course of time moves 
round the heavens — not regularly, but through complex 
oscillations. And further we have variations in the directions 
of the planetary axes — that known as nutation, and that 
larger gyration which, in the case of the Earth, causes the 
precession of the equinoxes. These rhythms, already 

more or less compound, are compounded with each other. 
Such an instance as the secular acceleration and retardation 
of the moon, consequent on the varying excentricity of the 
Earth's orbit, is one of the simplest. Another, having more 
important consequences, results from the changing direction 
of the axes of rotation in planets whose orbits are decidedly 
excentric. Every planet, during a certain long period, pre- 
sents more of its northern than of its southern hemisphere to 
the sun at the time of its nearest approach to him ; and then 
again, during a like period, presents more of its southern 
hemisphere than of its northern — a recurring coincidence 



320 THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 

which, though causing in some planets no sensible alterations 
of climate, involves in the case of the Earth an epoch of 
21,000 years, during which each hemisphere goes through a 
cycle of temperate seasons, and seasons that are extreme in 
their heat and cold. Nor is this all. There is even a varia- 
tion of this variation. For the summers and winters of the 
whole Earth become more or less strongly contrasted, as the 
excentricity of its orbit increases and decreases. Hence 
during increase of the excentricity, the epochs of moderately 
contrasted seasons and epochs of strongly contrasted seasons, 
through which alternately each hemisphere passes, must grow 
more and more different in the degrees of their contrasts ; 
and contrariwise during decrease of the excentricity. So 
that in the quantity of light and heat which any portion of 
the Earth receives from the sun, there goes on a quadruple 
rhythm : that of day and night ; that of summer and win- 
ter ; that due to the changing position of the axis at perihe- 
lion and aphelion, taking 21,000 years to complete ; and that 
involved by the variation of the orbit's excentricity, gone 
through in millions of years. 

§ 95. Those terrestrial processes whose dependence on the 
solar heat is direct, of course exhibit a rhythm that corre- 
sponds to the periodically changing amount of heat which 
each part of the Earth receives. The simplest, though the 
least obtrusive, instance is supplied by the magnetic variations. 
In these there is a diurnal increase and decrease, an annual 
increase and decrease, and a decennial increase and decrease ; 
the latter answering to a period during which the solar spots 
become alternately abundant and scarce : besides which known 
variations there are probably others corresponding with the 
astronomical cycles just described. More obvious examples 
are furnished by the movements of the ocean and the atmo- 
sphere. Marine currents from the equator to the poles above, 
and from the poles to the equator beneath, show us an un- 
ceasing backward and forward motion throughout this vast 



THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 321 

mass of water — a motion varying in amount according to the 
seasons, and compounded with smaller like motions of local 
origin. The similarly- caused general currents in the air, have 
similar annual variations similarly modified. Irregular as 
they are in detail, we still see in the monsoons and other tropi- 
cal atmospheric disturbances, or even in our own equinoctial 
gales and spring east winds, a periodicity sufficiently decid- 
ed. Again, we have an alternation of times during 
which evaporation predominates with times during which con- 
densation predominates : shown in the tropics by strongly 
marked rainy seasons and seasons of drought, and in the 
temperate zones by corresponding changes of which the pe- 
riodicity, though less definite, is still traceable. The diffusion 
and precipitation of water, besides the slow alternations 
answering to different parts of the year, furnish us with ex- 
amples of rhythm of a more rapid kind. During wet 
weather, lasting, let us say, over some weeks, the tendency 
to condense, though greater than the tendency to evaporate, 
does not show itself in continuous rain ; but the period is 
made up of rainy days and days that are wholly or partially 
fair. Nor is it in this rude alternation only that the law is 
manifested. During any day throughout this wet weather a 
minor rhythm is traceable ; and especially so when the ten- 
dencies to evaporate and to condense are nearly balanced. 
Among mountains this minor rhythm and its causes may be 
studied to great advantage. Moist winds, which do not pre- 
cipitate their contained water in passing over the compara- 
tively warm lowlands, lose so much heat when they reach 
the cold mountain peaks, that condensation rapidly takes 
place. Water, however, in passing from the gaseous to the 
fluid state, gives out a considerable amount of heat ; and 
hence the resulting clouds are warmer than the air that pre- 
cipitates them, and much warmer than the high rocky sur- 
faces round which they fold themselves. Hence in the 
course of the storm, these high rocky surfaces are raised in 
temperature, partly by radiation from the enwrapping cloud, 
15* 



322 THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 

partly by contact of the falling rain-drops. Giving off more 
heat than before, they no longer lower so greatly the temper- 
ature of the air passing over them ; and so cease to precipi- 
tate its contained water. The clouds break ; the sky begins 
to clear ; and a gleam of sunshine promises that the day is 
going to be fine. But the small supply of heat which the 
cold mountain's sides have received, is soon lost : especially 
when the dispersion of the clouds permits free radiation into 
space. Yery soon, therefore, these elevated surfaces, becom- 
ing as cold as at first, (or perhaps even colder in virtue of the 
evaporation set up,) begin again to condense the vapour in 
the air above ; and there comes another storm, followed by 
the same effects as before. In lowland regions this action 
and reaction is usually less conspicuous, because the contrast 
of temperatures is less marked. Even here, however, it may 
be traced ; and that not only on showery days, but on days 
of continuous rain ; for in these we do not see uniformity : 
always there are fits of harder and gentler rain that are pro- 
bably caused as above explained. 

Of course these meteorologic rhythms involve something 
corresponding to them in the changes wrought by wind and 
water on the Earth's surface. Variations in the quantities of 
sediment brought down by rivers that rise and fall with the 
seasons, must cause variations in the resulting strata — alter- 
nations of colour or quality in the successive laminae. Beds 
formed from the detritus of shores worn down and carried 
away by the waves, must similarly show periodic differences 
answering to the periodic winds of the locality. In so far as 
frost influences the rate of denudation, its recurrence is a 
factor in the rhythm of sedimentary deposits. And the 
geological changes produced by glaciers and icebergs must 
similarly have their alternating periods of greater and less 
intensity. 

There is evidence also that modifications in the Earth's 
crust due to igneous action have a certain periodicity. Vol- 
canic eruptions are not continuous but intermittent, and as 



THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 323 

far as the data enable us to judge, have a certain average 
rate of recurrence ; which rate of recurrence is complicated 
by rising into epochs of greater activity and falling into 
epochs of comparative quiescence. So too is it with earth- 
quakes and the elevations or depressions caused by them. At 
the mouth of the Mississippi, the alternation of strata gives 
decisive proof of successive sinkings of the surface, that 
have taken place at tolerably equal intervals* Everywhere, 
in the extensive groups of conformable strata that imply 
small subsidences recurring with a certain average frequency, 
we see a rhythm in the action and reaction between the 
Earth's crust and its molten contents — a rhythm compounded 
with those slower ones shown in the termination of groups of 
strata, and the commencement of other groups not con- 
formable to them. There is even reason for suspect- 
ing a geological periodicity that is immensely slower and far 
wider in its effects ; namely, an alternation of those vast up- 
heavals and submergencies by which continents are produced 
where there were oceans, and oceans where there were conti- 
nents. For supposing, as we may fairly do, that the Earth's 
crust is throughout of tolerably equal thickness, it is manifest 
that such portions of it as become most depressed below the 
average level, must have their inner surfaces most exposed 
to the currents of molten matter circulating within, and will 
therefore undergo a larger amount of what may be called 
igneous denudation ; while, conversely, the withdrawal of the 
inner surfaces from these currents where the Earth's crust is 
most elevated, will cause a thickening more or less compens- 
ating the aqueous denudation going on externally. Hence 
those depressed areas over which the deepest oceans lie, being 
gradually thinned beneath and not covered by much sedi- 
mentary deposit above, will become areas of least resistance, 
and will then begin to yield to the upward pressure of the 
Earth's contents ; whence will result, throughout such areas, 
long- continued elevations, ceasing only when the reverse state 
of things has been brought about. Whether this speculation 



324 THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 

be well or ill founded, does not however affect the general 
conclusion. Apart from it we have sufficient evidence that 
geologic processes are rhythmical. 

§ 96. Perhaps nowhere are the illustrations of rhythm 
so numerous and so manifest as among the phenomena of life. 
Plants do not, indeed, usually show us any decided periodi- 
cities, save those determined by day and night and by the 
seasons. But in animals we have a great variety of move- 
ments in which the alternation of opposite extremes goes on 
with all degrees of rapidity. The swallowing of food is 
effected by a wave of constriction passing along the oesopha- 
gus ; its digestion is accompanied by a muscular action of the 
stomach that is also undulatory ; and the peristaltic motion of 
the intestines is of like nature. The blood obtained from this 
food is propelled not in a uniform current but in pulses ; and 
it is aerated by lungs that alternately contract and expand. All 
locomotion results from oscillating movements : even where it 
is apparently continuous, as in many minute forms, the mi- 
croscope proves the vibration of cilia to be the agency by 
which the creature is moved smoothly forwards. 

Primary rhythms of the organic actions are compounded 
with secondary ones of longer duration. These various 
modes of activity have their recurring periods of increase and 
decrease. "We see this in the periodic need for food, and in the 
periodic need for repose. Each meal induces a more rapid 
rhythmic action of the digestive organs ; the pulsation of 
the heart is accelerated ; and the inspirations become more 
frequent. During sleep, on the contrary, these several 
movements slacken. So that in the course of the twenty- 
four hours, those small undulations of which the different 
kinds of organic action are constituted, undergo one long 
wave of increase and decrease, complicated with several 
minor waves. Experiments have shown that there 

are still slower rises and falls of functional activity. 
Waste and assimilation are not balanced by every meal, but 



THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 325 

one or other maintains for some time a slight excess ; so that 
a person in ordinary health is found to undergo an increase 
and decrease of weight during recurring intervals of tolerable 
equality. Besides these regular periods there are still longer 
and comparatively irregular ones ; namely, those alternations 
of greater and less vigour, which, even healthy people expe- 
rience. So inevitable are these oscillations that even men in 
training cannot be kept stationary at their highest power, but 
when they have reached it begin to retrograde. Fur- 

ther evidence of rhythm in the vital movements is fur- 
nished by invalids. Sundry disorders are named from the 
intermittent character of their symptoms. Even where the 
periodicity is not very marked, it is mostly traceable. Patients 
rarely if ever get uniformly worse ; and convalescents have 
usually their days of partial relapse or of less decided ad- 
vance. 

Aggregates of living creatures illustrate the general truth 
in other ways. If each species of organism be regarded as a 
whole, it displays two kinds of rhythm. Life as it exists in 
all the members of such species, is an extremely complex kind 
of movement, more or less distinct from the kinds of move- 
ment which constitutes life in other species. In each indi- 
vidual of the species, this extremely complex kind of move- 
ment begins, rises to its climax, declines, and ceases in 
death. And every successive generation thus exhibits a wave 
of that peculiar activity characterizing the species as a 
whole. The other form of rhythm is to be traced in 

that variation of number which each . tribe of animals and 
plants is ever undergoing. Throughout the unceasing con- 
flict between the tendency of a species to increase and the 
antagonistic tendencies, there is never an equilibrium : one 
always predominates. In the case even of a cultivated plant 
or domesticated animal, where artificial means are used to 
maintain the supply at a uniform level, we still see that oscil- 
lations of abundance and scarcity cannot be avoided. And 
among the creatures uncared for by man, such oscillations 



326 



THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 



are usually more marked. After a race of organisms has 
been greatly thinned by enemies or lack of food, its surviving 
members become more favourably circumstanced than usual. 
During the decline in their numbers their food has grown 
relatively more abundant ; while their enemies have diminish- 
ed from want of prey. The conditions thus remain for 
some time favourable to their increase ; and they multiply 
rapidly. By and by their food is rendered relatively scarce, 
at the same time that their enemies have become more 
numerous ; and the destroying influences being thus in excess, 
their number begins to diminish again. Yet one 

more rhythm, extremely slow in its action, may be traced in 
the phenomena of Life, contemplated under their most general 
aspect. The researches of palaeontologists show, that there 
have been going on, during the vast period of which our sedi- 
mentary rocks bear record, successive changes of organic 
forms. Species have appeared, become abundant, and then 
disappeared. Genera, at first constituted of but few species, 
have for a time gone on growing more multiform ; and then 
have begun to decline in the number of their subdivisions ; 
leaving at last but one or two representatives, or none at all. 
During longer epochs whole orders have thus arisen, culmin- 
ated, and dwindled away. And even those wider divisions con- 
taining many orders have similarly undergone a gradual rise, 
a high tide, and a long- continued ebb. The stalked Crinoidea, 
for example, which, during the carboniferous epoch, became 
abundant, have almost disappeared : only a single species 
being extant. Once a large family of molluscs; the Brachio- 
poda have now become rare. The shelled Cephalopods, at 
one time dominant among the inhabitants of the ocean, both in 
number of forms and of individuals, are in our day nearly 
extinct. And after an " age of reptiles," there has come an 
age in which reptiles have been in great measure supplanted 
by mammals. Whether these vast rises and falls of different 
kinds of life ever undergo anything approaching to repetitions, 
(which they may possibly do in correspondence with those 






THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 327 

vast cycles of elevation and subsidence that produce continents 
and oceans,) it is sufficiently clear that Life on the Earth has 
not progressed uniformly, but in immense undulations. 

§ 97. It is not manifest that the changes of consciousness 
are in any sense rhythmical. Yet here, too, analysis proves 
both that the mental state existing at any moment is not 
uniform, but is decomposable into rapid oscillations ; and also 
that mental states pass through longer intervals of increasing 
and decreasing intensity. 

Though while attending to any single sensation, or any 
group of related sensations constituting the consciousness of 
an object, we seem to remain for the time in a persistent and 
homogeneous condition of mind, a careful* self-examination 
shows that this apparently unbroken mental state is in truth 
traversed by a number of minor states, in which various other 
sensations and perceptions are rapidly presented and disappear. 
From the admitted fact that thinking consists in the* establish- 
ment of relations, it is a necessary corollary that the main- 
tenance of consciousness in any one state to the entire exclu- 
sion of other states, would be a cessation of thought, that is, of 
consciousness. So that any seemingly continuous feeling, say 
of pressure, really consists of portions of that feeling perpetu- 
ally recurring after the momentary intrusion of other feelings 
and ideas — quick thoughts concerning the place where it is 
felt, the external object producing it, its consequences, and 
other things suggested by association. Thus there is going 
on an extremely rapid departure from, and return to, that par- 
ticular mental state which we regard as persistent. Besides 
the evidence of rhythm in consciousness which direct analysis 
thus affords, we may gather further evidence from the corre- 
lation between feeling and movement. Sensations and emotions 
expend themselves in producing muscular contractions. If a 
sensation or emotion were strictly continuous, there would be a 
continuous discharge along those motor nerves acted upon. But 
so far as experiments with artificial stimuli enable us to judge, 
a continuous discharge along the nerve leading to a muscle, 



828 THE BHYTHM OF MOTION. 

does not contract it : a broken discharge is required — a rapid 
succession of shocks. Hence muscular contraction pre-supposes 
that rhythmic state of consciousness which direct observation 
discloses. A much more conspicuous rhythm, having 

longer waves, is seen during the outflow of emotion into 
dancing, poetry, and music. The current of mental energy 
that shows itself in these modes of bodily action, is not con- 
tinuous, but falls into a succession of pulses. The measure of 
a dance is produced by the alternation of strong muscular 
contractions with weaker ones ; and, save in measures of the 
simplest order such as are found among barbarians and 
children, this alternation is compounded with longer rises and 
falls in the degree of muscular excitement. Poetry is a form of 
speech which results when the emphasis is regularly recurrent ; 
that is, when the muscular effort of pronunciation has de- 
finite periods of greater and less intensity — periods that are 
complicated with others of like nature answering to the suc- 
cessive verses. Music, in still more various ways, exemplifies 
the law. There are the recurring bars, in each of which there 
is a primary and a secondary beat. There is the alternate 
increase and decrease of muscular strain, implied by the 
ascents and descents to the higher and lower notes — as- 
cents and descents composed of smaller waves, breaking the 
rises and falls of the larger ones, in a mode peculiar to each 
melody. And then we have, further, the alternation of piano 
and forte passages. That these several kinds of rhythm, 
characterizing aesthetic expression, are not, in the common 
sense of the word, artificial, but are intenser forms of an un- 
dulatory movement habitually generated by feeling in its 
bodily discharge, is shown by the fact that they are all trace- 
able in ordinary speech ; which in every sentence has its 
primary and secondary emphases, and its cadence containing 
a chief rise and fall complicated with subordinate rises 
and falls ; and which is accompanied by a more or less 
oscillatory action of the limbs when the emotion is 
great. Still longer undulations may be observed by 

every one, in himself and in others, on occasions of extreme 



THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 329 

pleasure or extreme pain. Note, in the first place, that pain 
having its origin in bodily disorder, is nearly always percep- 
tibly rhythmical. During hours in which it never actually 
ceases, it has its variations of intensity — fits or paroxysms ; and 
then after these hours of suffering there usually come hours 
of comparative ease. Moral pain has the like smaller and 
larger waves. One possessed by intense grief does not utter 
continuous moans, or shed tears with an equable rapidity ; 
but these signs of passion come in recurring bursts. Then 
after a time during which such stronger and weaker waves 
of emotion alternate, there comes a calm — a time of compara- 
tive deadness ; to which again succeeds another interval, 
when dull sorrow rises afresh into acute anguish, with its 
series of paroxysms. Similarly in great delight, especially as 
manifested by children who have its display less under control, 
there are visible variations in the intensity of feeling shown — 
fits of laughter and dancing about, separated by pauses in 
which smiles, and other slight manifestations of pleasure, 
suffice to discharge the lessened excitement. Nor are 

there wanting evidences of mental undulations greater in 
length than any of these— undulations which take weeks, or 
months, or years, to complete themselves. We continually 
hear of moods which recur at intervals. Yery many persons 
have their epochs of vivacity and depression. There are periods 
of industry following periods of idleness ; and times at which 
particular subjects or tastes are cultivated with zeal, alternat- 
ing with times at which they are neglected. Respecting 
which slow oscillations, the only qualification to be made is, 
that being affected by numerous influences, they are com- 
paratively irregular. 

§ 98. In nomadic societies the changes of place, deter 
mined as they usually are by exhaustion or failure of the 
supply of food, are periodic ; and in many cases show a 
recurrence answering to the seasons. Each tribe that has 
become in some degree fixed in its locality, goes on increasing, 



330 THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 

till under the pressures of unsatisfied desires, there results 
migration of some part of it to a new region — a process repeat- 
ed at intervals. From such excesses of population, and such 
successive waves of migration, come conflicts with other 
tribes ; which are also increasing and tending to diffuse 
themselves. This antagonism, like all others, results not in an 
uniform motion, but in an intermittent one. "War, exhaus- 
tion, recoil — peace, prosperity, and renewed aggression : — see 
here the alternation more or less discernible in the military- 
activities of both savage and civilized nations. And irregular 
as is this rhythm, it is not more so than the different sizes 
of the societies, and the extremely involved causes of varia- 
tion in their strengths, would lead us to anticipate. 

Passing from external to internal changes, we meet with 
this backward and forward movement under many forms. In 
the currents of commerce it is especially conspicuous. 
Exchange during early times is almost wholly carried on at 
fairs, held at long intervals in the chief centres of population. 
The flux and reflux of people and commodities which each of 
these exhibits, becomes more frequent as national develop- 
ment leads to greater social activity. The more rapid rhythm 
of weekly markets begins to supersede the slow rhythm of 
fairs. And eventually the process of exchange becomes at 
certain places so active, as to bring about daily meetings of 
buyers and sellers — a daily wave of accumulation and dis- 
tribution of cotton, or corn, or capital. If from 
exchange we turn to production and consumption, we see 
undulations, much longer indeed in their periods, but almost 
equally obvious. Supply and demand are never completely 
adapted to each other ; but each of them from time to time 
in excess, leads presently to an excess of the other. Farmers 
who have one season produced wheat very abundantly, are 
disgusted with the consequent low price ; and next season, 
sowing a much smaller quantity, bring to market a deficient 
crop ; whence follows a converse effect. Consumption 
undergoes parallel undulations that need not be specified. 



THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 331 

The balancing of supplies between different districts, too, 
entails analogous oscillations. A place at which some neces- 
sary of life is scarce, becomes a place to which currents of it 
are set up from other places where it is relatively abundant ; 
and these currents from all sides lead to a wave of accumula- 
tion where they meet — a glut : whence follows a recoil — a 
partial return of the currents. But the undulatory 

character of these actions is perhaps best seen in the rises and 
falls of prices. These, given in numerical measures which 
may be tabulated and reduced to diagrams, show us in the 
clearest manner how commercial movements are compounded 
of oscillations of various magnitudes. The price of consols or 
the price of wheat, as thus represented, is seen to undergo 
vast ascents and descents whose highest and lowest points are 
reached only in the course of years. These largest waves of 
variation are broken by others extending over periods of 
perhaps many months. On these again come others having 
a week or two's duration. And were the changes marked in 
greater detail, we should have the smaller undulations that 
take place each day, and the still smaller ones which brokers 
telegraph from hour to hour. The whole outline would show 
a complication like that of a vast ocean-swell, on whose sur- 
face there rise large billows, which themselves bear waves of 
moderate size, covered by wavelets, that are roughened by a 
minute ripple. Similar diagramatic representations of births, 
marriages, and deaths, of disease, of crime, of pauperism, 
exhibit involved conflicts of rhythmical motions throughout 
society under these several aspects. 

There are like characteristics in social changes of a more 
complex kind. Both in England and among continental 
nations, the action and reaction of political progress have 
come to be generally recognized. Religion, besides its occa- 
sional revivals of smaller magnitude, has its long periods of 
exaltation and depression — generations of belief and self-mor- 
tification, following generations of indifference and laxity. 
There are poetical epochs, and epochs in which the sense of the 



332 THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 

beautiful seems almost dormant. Philosophy, after having 
been awhile predominant, lapses for a long season into neglect ; 
and then again slowly revives. Each science has its eras of 
deductive reasoning, and its eras when attention is chiefly 
directed to collecting and colligating facts. And how in such 
minor but more obtrusive phenomena as those of fashion, 
there are ever going on oscillations from one extreme to the 
other, is a trite observation. 

As may be foreseen, social rhythms well illustrate the 
irregularity that results from combination of many causes. 
Where the variations are those of one simple element in na- 
tional life, as the supply of a particular commodity, we do in- 
deed witness a return, after many involved movements, to a 
previous condition — the price may become what it was before : 
implying a like relative abundance. But where the action is 
one into which many factors enter, there is never a recur- 
rence of exactly the same state. A political reaction never 
brings round just the old form of things. The rationalism 
of the present day differs widely from the rationalism of the 
last century. And though fashion from time to time revives 
extinct types of dress, these always re-appear with decided 
modifications. 

§ 99. The universality of this principle suggests a question 
like that raised in foregoing cases. Rhythm being manifested 
in all forms of movement, we have reason to suspect that it 
is determined by some primordial condition to action in 
general. The tacit implication is that it is deducible from 
the persistence of force. This we shall find to be the fact. 

When the prong of a tuning-fork is pulled on one side by 
the finger, a certain extra tension is produced among its co- 
hering particles ; which resist any force that draws them out 
of their state of equilibrium. As much force as the finger 
exerts in pulling the prong aside, so much opposing force is 
brought into play among the cohering particles. Hence, 
when the prong is liberated, it is urged back by a force equal 



THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 333 

to that used in deflecting it. When, therefore, the prong 
reaches its original position, the force impressed on it during 
its recoil, has generated in it a corresponding amount of mo- 
mentum — an amount of momentum nearly equivalent, that 
is, to the force originally impressed (nearly, we must say, 
because a certain portion has gone in communicating motion 
to the air, and a certain other portion has been transformed 
into heat). This momentum carries the prong beyond the 
position of rest, nearly as far as it was originally drawn in 
the reverse direction ; until at length, being gradually used 
up in producing an opposing tension among the particles, it 
is all lost. The opposing tension into which the expended 
momentum has been transformed, then generates a second re- 
coil ; and so on continually — the vibration eventually ceasing 
only because at each movement a certain amount of force 
goes in creating atmospheric and etherial undulations. 
Now it needs but to contemplate this repeated action and re- 
action, to see that it is, like every action and reaction, a 
consequence of the persistence of force. The force exerted 
by the finger in bending the prong cannot disappear. 
Under what form then does it exist ? It exists under the 
form of that cohesive tension which it has generated among 
the particles. This cohesive tension cannot cease without an 
equivalent result. What is its equivalent result ? The 
momentum generated in the prong while being carried back 
to its position of rest. This momentum too — what becomes 
of it ? It must either continue as momentum, or produce 
some correlative force of equal amount. It cannot continue 
as momentum, since change of place is resisted by the cohe- 
sion of the parts ; and thus it gradually disappears by being 
transformed into tension among these parts. This is re- 
transformed into the equivalent momentum ; and so on con- 
tinuously. If instead of motion that is directly anta- 
gonized by the cohesion of matter, we consider motion through 
space, the same truth presents itself under another form. 
Though here no opposing force seems at work, and therefore 



334 THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 

no cause of rhythm is apparent, yet its own accumulated 
momentum must eventually carry the moving body beyond 
the body attracting it ; and so must become a force at vari- 
ance with that which generated it. From this conflict, 
rhythm necessarily results as in the foregoing case. The 
force embodied as momentum in a given direction, cannot be 
destroyed ; and if it eventually disappears, it re-appears in 
the reaction on the retarding body ; which begins afresh to 
draw the now arrested mass back from its aphelion. The 
only conditions under which there could be absence of rhythm 
— the only conditions, that is, under which there could be a 
continuous motion through space in the same straight line 
for ever, would be the existence of an infinity void of every- 
thing but the moving body. And neither of these conditions 
can be represented in thought. Infinity is inconceivable ; 
and so also is a motion which never had a commencement in 
some pre-existing source of power. Thus, then, rhythm 

is a necessary characteristic of all motion. Given the co- 
existence everywhere of antagonist forces — a postulate which, 
as we have seen, is necessitated by the form of our experience 
— and rhythm is an inevitable corollary from the persistence 
of force. 

Hence, throughout that re- arrangement of parts which 
constitutes Evolution, we must nowhere expect to see the 
change from one position of things to another, effected by 
continuous movement in the same direction. Be it in that 
kind of Evolution which the inorganic creation presents, or 
in that presented by the organic creation, we shall every- 
where find a periodicity of action and reaction — a backward 
and forward motion, of which progress is a differential result. 



CHAPTER XIL 

THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 

§ 100. One more preliminary is needful before proceeding. 
We have still to study the conditions under which alone, 
Evolution can take place. 

The process to be interpreted is, as already said, a certain 
change in the arrangement of parts. That increase of hetero- 
geneity commonly displayed throughout Evolution, is not an 
increase in the number of kinds of ultimate or undecompos- 
able units which an aggregate contains ; but it is a change 
in the distribution of such units. If it be assumed that 
what we call chemical elements, are absolutely simple (which 
is, however, an hypothesis having no better warrant than the 
opposite one) ; then it must be admitted that in respect to the 
number of kinds of matter contained in it, the Earth is not 
more heterogeneous at present than it was at first — that in this 
respect, it would be as heterogeneous were all its undecompos- 
able parts uniformly mixed, as it is now, when they are 
arranged and combined in countless different ways. But the 
increase of heterogeneity with which we have to deal, and of 
which alone our senses can take cognizance, is that produced 
by the passage from unity of distribution to variety of distri- 
bution. Given an aggregate consisting of several orders of 
primitive units that are unchangeable ; then, these units may 
be so uniformly dispersed among each other, that any portion 
of the mass shall be like any other portion in its sensible pro- 



336 THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 

perties ; or they may be so segregated, simply and in endless 
combinations, that the various portions of the mass shall not 
be like each other in their t sensible properties. A trans- 
formation of one of these arrangements into the other, is that 
which constitutes Evolution. "We have to analyze the pro- 
cess through which structural uniformity becomes structural 
multiformity — to ascertain how the originally equal relations 
of position among the mixed units, pass into relations of posi- 
tion that are more and more unequal, and more and more 
numerous in their kinds of inequality ; and how this 
takes place throughout all* the ascending grades of com- 
pound units, until we come even to those of which societies 
are made up. 

Change in the relations of position among the component 
units, simple or complex, being the phenomenon we have to 
interpret ; we must first inquire what are the circumstances 
which prevent its occurrence, and what are the circumstances 
which facilitate it. 

§ 101. The constituents of an aggregate cannot be re- 
arranged, unless they are moveable : manifestly, they must 
not be so firmly bound together that the incident force fails 
to alter their positions. Wo bodies are, indeed, possessed of 
this absolute rigidity ; since an incident force in being propa- 
gated through a body, always produces temporary alterations 
in the relative positions of its units, if not permanent altera- 
tions. It is true also, that even permanent re-arrangements of 
the units may be thus wrought throughout the interiors of 
comparatively dense masses, without any outward sign : as 
happens with certain crystals, which, on exposure to sun- 
light, undergo molecular changes so great as to alter their 
planes of cleavage. Nevertheless, since total immobility of the 
parts must totally negative their re-arrangement ; and since 
that comparative immobility which we see in very coherent 
matter, is a great obstacle to re- arrangement ; it is self- 
evident that Evolution can be exhibited in any consider- 



THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 337 

able degree, only where there is comparative mobility of 
parts. On the other hand, those definite distributive 

changes which constitute Evolution, cannot be extensively 
or variously displayed, where the mobility of the parts is 
extreme. In liquids, the cohesion of the units is so slight 
that there is no permanency in their relations of position to 
each other. Such re-arrangement as any incident force 
generates, is immediately destroyed again by the momen- 
tum of the constituents moved ; and so, nothing but that 
temporary heterogeneity seen in circulating currents, can 
be produced. The like still more obviously holds of 
gases. Thus, while the theoretical limits between 

which Evolution is possible, are absolute immobility of parts 
and absolute mobility of parts ; we may say that practically, 
Evolution cannot go on to any considerable extent where the 
mobility is very great or very little. A few examples will 
facilitate the realization of this truth. 

The highest degrees of Evolution are found in semi-solid 
bodies, or bodies that come midway between the two extremes 
specified. Even semi-solid bodies of the inorganic class, ex- 
hibit the segregation of mixed units with comparative readi- 
ness : witness the fact to which attention was first drawn by 
Mr. Babbage, that when the pasty mixture of ground flints 
and kaolin, prepared for the manufacture of porcelain, is kept 
some time, it becomes gritty and unfit for use, in consequence 
of the particles of silica separating themselves from the rest, 
and uniting together in grains ; or witness the fact known to 
every housewife, that in long-kept currant-jelly the sugar 
takes the shape of imbedded crystals. While throughout the 
immense majority of the semi- solid bodies, namely, the 
organic bodies, the proclivity to a re-arrangement of parts is 
so comparatively great, as to be usually taken for a distinc- 
tive characteristic of them. Among organic bodies 
themselves, we may trace contrasts having a like significance. 
It is an accepted generalization that, other, things equal, the 
rate of Evolution is greatest where the plasticity is most 
16 



338 THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 

marked. In that portion of an egg which displays the 
formative processes during the early stages of incubation, the 
changes of arrangement are more rapid than those which an 
equal portion of the body of a hatched chick undergoes. As 
may be inferred from their respective powers to acquire habits 
and aptitudes, the structural modifiability of a child is greater 
than that of an adult man ; and the structural modifiability of 
an adult man is greater than that of an old man : contrasts 
which are accompanied by corresponding contrasts in the 
densities of the tissues ; since the ratio of water to solid matter 
diminishes with advancing age. The most decisive 

proof, however, is furnished by those marked retardations or 
arrests of organic change, that take place when the tissues 
suffer a great loss of water. Certain of the lower animals, as 
the Rotifera, may be rendered apparently lifeless by desicca- 
tion, and will yet revive when wetted : as their substance 
passes from the fluid- solid to the solid state, it ceases to be 
the seat of those changes which constitute functional activity 
and cause structural advance ; and such changes recommence 
as their substance passes from the solid to the fluid-solid 
state. Analogous instances occur among much higher ani- 
mals. When the African rivers which it inhabits are 
dried up, the Lepidosiren remains torpid in the hardened 
mud, until the return of the rainy season brings water. 
Humboldt states that during the summer drought, the alli- 
gators of the Pampas lie buried in a state of suspended ani- 
mation beneath the parched surface, and struggle up out of 
the earth as soon as it becomes humid. Now though we 
have no proof that these partial arrests of vital activity, are 
consequent on the reduction of the fluid-solid tissues to a more 
solid form ; yet their occurrence along with a cessation in the 
supply of water, is reason for suspecting that this is the case. 
And similarly, though in the more numerous instances where 
loss of water leads to complete arrest of vital activity, we are 
unable to say that the immediate cause is a stoppage of mole- 
cular changes that results from a diminution of molecular 



THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 339 

mobility ; yet it seem^not improbable that this is tbe 
rationale of death by thirst. 

Probably few* will expect to find this same condition to 
Evolution, illustrated in aggregates so widely different in 
kind as societies. Yet even here it may be shown that no 
considerable degree of Evolution is exhibited, where there is 
either great mobility of the parts, or great immobility of 
them. In such tribes as those inhabiting Australia, we see 
extremely little cohesion among the units : there is neither 
that partial fixity of relative positions which results from the 
commencement of agriculture, nor that partial fixity of rela- 
tive positions implied by the establishment of social grades. 
And along with this want of cohesion, we find an absence of 
permanent differentiations. Conversely, in societies of the 
oriental type, where accumulated traditions, laws, and 
usages, and long-fixed class-arrangements, exercise great 
restraining power over individual actions, we find Evolution 
almost stopped. Through the medium of institutions and 
opinions, the forces brought to bear on each unit by the rest, 
are so great as to prevent the units from sensibly yielding to 
forces tending to re- arrange them. The condition most 
favourable to increase of social heterogeneity, is a medium 
coherence among the parts — a moderate facility of change in 
the relations of citizens, joined with a moderate resistance to 
such change— a considerable freedom of individual actions, 
qualified by a considerable restraint over individual actions — 
a certain attachment to pre-established arrangements, and a 
certain readiness to be impelled by new influences into new 
arrangements — a compromise between fixity and unfixity such 
as that which we, perhaps as much as any nation, exhibit. 

§ 102. Another condition to Evolution, of the same order 
as the last though of a different genus, must be noted. We 
have found that permanent re-arrangement among the units 
of an aggregate, can take place only when they have neither 



340 THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 

extreme immobility nor extreme mobility. The mobility and 
immobility thus far considered (at least in all aggregates 
except social ones) are those due to mechanical cohesion. 
There is, however, what we must call chemical cohesion, 
which also influences the mobility of the units, and conse- 
quently the re-arrangement of them. Manifestly, if two or 
more kinds of units contained in any aggregate, are united 
by powerful affinities, an incident force, failing to destroy 
their cohesions, will not cause such various re-arrangements 
as it would, could it produce new chemical combinations as 
well as new mechanical adjustments. On the other hand, 
chemical affinities that are easily overcome, must be favour- 
able to multiplied re- arrangements of the units. 

This condition, as well as the preceding one, is fulfilled in 
the highest degree, by those aggregates which most variously 
display the transformation of the uniform into the multiform. 
Organic bodies are on the average distinguished from inor- 
ganic bodies, by the readiness with which the compounds 
they consist of undergo decomposition, and recomposition : 
the chemical cohesions of their components are so compara- 
tively small, that small incident forces suffice to overcome 
them and cause transpositions of the components. Further, 
between the two great divisions of organisms, we find a 
contrast in the degree of Evolution co-existing with a con- 
trast in the degree of chemical modifiability. As a class, the 
nitrogenous compounds are peculiarly unstable ; and, speak- 
ing generally, these are present in much larger quantities in 
animal tissues than they are in vegetal tissues ; while, speak- 
ing generally, animals are much more heterogeneous than 
plants. 

Under this head it may be well also to point out that, other 
things equal, the structural variety which is possible in any 
aggregate, must bear a relation to the number of kinds of 
units contained in the aggregate. A body made up of units 
of one order, cannot admit of so many different re-arrange- 



THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 341 

ments, as one made up of units of two orders. And each 
additional order of units must increase, in a geometrical pro- 
portion, the number of re- arrangements that may be made. 

§ 103. Yet one more condition to be specified, is the state 
of agitation in which the constituents of an aggregate are 
kept. A familiar experience will introduce us to this condi- 
tion. When a vessel has been filled to the brim with loose 
fragments, shaking the vessel causes them to settle down 
into less space, so that more may be put in. And when 
among these fragments, there are some of much greater 
specific gravity than the rest, these will, in the course of a 
prolonged shaking, find their way to the bottom. What 
now is the meaning of these two results, when expressed in 
general terms ? We have a group of units acted on by an 
incident force — the attraction of the Earth. So long as 
these units are not agitated, this incident force produces no 
changes in their relative positions ; agitate them, and im- 
mediately their loose arrangement passes into a more com- 
pact arrangement. Again, so long as they are not agitated, 
the incident force cannot separate the heavier units from the 
lighter ; agitate them, and immediately the heavier units 
begin to segregate. By these illustrations, a rude idea will 
be conveyed of the effect which vibration has in facilitating 
those re-arrangements which constitute Evolution. What 
here happens with visible units subject to visible oscillations, 
happens also with invisible units subject to invisible oscilla- 
tions. 

One or two cases in which these oscillations are of me- 
chanical origin, may first be noted. When a bar of steel is 
suspended in the magnetic meridian, and repeatedly so struck 
as to "send vibrations through it, it becomes magnetized : the 
magnetic force of the Earth, which does not permanently 
affect it while undisturbed, alters its internal state when a 
mechanical agitation is propagated among its particles ; and 
the alteration is believed by physicists, to be a molecular re- 






342 THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 

arrangement. It may be fairly objected that this re-arrange- 
ment is hypothetical ; and did the fact stand alone, it would 
be of little worth. It gains significance, however, when 
joined with the fact that in the same substance, long- 
continued mechanical vibrations are followed by molecular 
re- arrangements that are abundantly visible. A piece of iron 
which, when it leaves the workshop, is fibrous in structure, 
will become crystalline if exposed to a perpetual jar. 
Though the polar forces mutually exercised by the atoms, 
fail to change their disorderly arrangement into an orderly 
arrangement while the atoms are relatively quiescent, these 
forces produce this change when the atoms are kept in a 
state of intestine disturbance. 

But the effects which visible oscillations and oscillations 
sensible to touch, have in facilitating the re- arrangement of 
parts by an incident force, are insignificant compared with 
the effects which insensible oscillations have in aiding such 
change of structure. It is a doctrine now generally accepted 
among men of science, that the particles of tangible matter, 
as well as the particles of ether, undulate. As interpreted in 
conformity with this doctrine, the heat of a body is simply 
its state of molecular motion. A mass which feels cold, 
is one having but slight molecular motion, and conveying 
but slight molecular motion to the surrounding medium or to 
the hand touching it. A mass hot enough to radiate a sensible 
warmth, is one of which the more violently agitated mole- 
cules, communicate increased undulations to the surrounding 
ethereal medium ; while the burn inflicted by it on the skin, 
is the expression of increased undulations of the organic 
molecules. Such further heat as produces softening and a 
consequent distortion . of the mass, is an agitation so much 
augmented that the units can no longer completely main- 
tain their relative positions. Fusion is an agitation so ex- 
treme, that the relative positions of the units are changeable 
with ease. When, finally, at a still higher temperature, 
the liquid is transformed into a gas, the explanation 



THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 343 

is, that the oscillations are so violent as to overbalance 
that force which held the units in close contiguity — so vio- 
lent as to keep the units at those relatively great dis- 
tances apart to which they are now thrown. Since 
the establishment of the correlation between heat and motion 
first gave probability to this hypothesis, it has been receiving 
various confirmations — especially by recent remarkable dis- 
coveries respecting the absorption of heat by gases. Prof. 
Tyndall has proved that the quantity of heat which any gas 
takes up from rays of heat passing through it, has a distinct 
relation to the complexity of the atoms composing the gas. 
The simple gases abstract but little ; the gases composed of 
binary atoms abstract, say in round numbers, a hundred times 
as much ; while the gases composed of atoms severally con- 
taining three, four, or more simple ones, abstract something 
like a thousand times as much. These differences Prof. Tyn- 
dall regards as due to the different abilities of the different 
atoms to take up, in the increase of their own undulations, 
those undulations of the ethereal medium which constitute 
heat — an interpretation in perfect accordance with the late 
results of spectrum-analysis; which go to show that the 
various elementary atoms, when in an aeriform state, inter- 
cept those luminiferous vibrations of the ether which are in 
unison or harmony with their own. And since it holds of 
solid as of gaseous matters, that those consisting of simple 
units transmit heat far more readily than those consisting of 
complex units ; we get confirmation of the inference otherwise 
reached, that the units of matter in whatever state of aggre- 
gation they exist, oscillate, and that variations of temperature 
are variations in the amounts of their oscillations. 

Proceeding on this hypothesis, which it would be out of 
place here to defend at greater length, we have now to note 
how the re-arrangement of parts is facilitated by these in- 
sensible vibrations, as we have seen it to be by sensible vibra- 
tions. One or two cases of physical re- arrangement may first 
be noted. When some molten glass is dropped into 



344 THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 

water, and when its outside is thus, by sudden solidification, 
prevented from partaking in that contraction which the sub- 
sequent cooling of the inside tends to produce ; the units are 
left in such a state of tension, that the mass flies into frag- 
ments if a small portion of it be broken off. But now, if this 
mass be kept for a day or two at a considerable heat, though 
a heat not sufficient to alter its form or produce any sensible 
diminution of hardness, this extreme brittleness disappears : 
the component particles being thrown into greater agitation, 
the tensile forces are enabled to re- arrange them into a state 
of equilibrium. An illustration of another order is furnished 
by the subsidence of fine precipitates. These sink down very 
slowly from solutions that are cold; while warm solutions 
deposit them with comparative rapidity. That is to say, an 
increase of molecular vibration throughout the mass, allows 
the suspended particles to separate more readily from the 
particles of fluid. The effect of heat on chemical re- 

arrangement is so familiar, that examples are scarcely needed. 
Be the substances concerned gaseous, Liquid, or solid, it 
equally holds that their chemical unions and disunions are 
aided by a rise of temperature. Affinities which do not 
suffice to effect the re- arrangement of mixed units that are in 
a state of feeble agitation, suffice to effect it when the agita- 
tion is raised to a certain point. And so long as this mole- 
cular motion is not great enough to prevent those chemical 
cohesions which the affinities tend to produce, increase of it 
gives increased facility of chemical re-arrangement. ■/* 

This condition, in common with the preceding ones, is 
fulfilled most completely in those aggregates which exhibit 
the phenomena of Evolution in the highest degree ; namely, 
the organic aggregates. And throughout the various orders 
and states of these, we find minor contrasts showing the re- 
lation between amount of molecular vibration and activity of 
the metamorphic changes. Such contrasts may be arranged 
in the several following groups. Speaking generally, 

the phenomena of Evolution are manifested in a much lower 



THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 345 

degree throughout the vegetal kingdom than throughout the 
animal kingdom ; and speaking generally, the heat of plants 
is less than that of animals. Among plants themselves, the 
organic changes vary in rate as the temperature varies. 
Though light is the agent which effects those molecular 
changes causing vegetal growth, yet we see that in the ab- 
sence of heat, such changes are not effected : in winter there 
is enough light, but the heat being insufficient, plant-life is 
suspended. That this is the sole cause of the suspension, is 
proved by the fact that at the same season, plants contained 
in hot-houses, where they receive even a smaller amount of 
light, go on producing leaves and flowers. A com- 

parison of the several divisions of the animal kingdom with 
each other, shows among them parallel relations. Regarded 
as a whole, vertebrate animals are higher in temperature than 
invertebrate ones ; and they are as a whole higher in organic 
activity and development. Between subdivisions of the ver- 
tebrata themselves, like differences in the state of molecular 
vibration, accompany like differences in the degree of evolu- 
tion. The least heterogeneous of the vertebrata are the 
fishes ; and in most cases, the heat of fishes is nearly the 
same as that of the water in which they swim : only some 
of them being decidedly warmer. Though we habitually speak 
of reptiles as cold-blooded ; and though they have not much 
more power than fishes of maintaining a temperature above 
that of their medium ; yet since their medium (which is, in 
the majority of cases, the air of warm climates) is on the 
average warmer than the medium inhabited by fishes, the 
temperature of the class of reptiles is higher than that of the 
class of fishes ; and we see in them a correspondingly higher 
complexity. The much more active molecular agitation in 
mammals and birds, is associated with a considerably greater 
multiformity of structure and a very much greater vivacity. 
And though birds, which are hotter blooded than mam- 
mals, do not show us a greater multiformity ; yet, judging 
from their apparently greater locomotive powers, we may 
16* 



346 THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 

infer more rapid functional changes, which, equally with struc- 
tural changes, imply molecular re-arrangement. The 
most instructive constrasts, however, are those presented by 
the same organic aggregates at different temperatures. 
Thus we see that ova undergoing development, must be kept 
more or less warm — that in the absence of a certain mole- 
cular vibration, the re-arrangement of parts does not go on. 
"We see, again, that in hybernating animals, loss of heat car- 
ried to a particular point, results in extreme retardation of 
the organic changes. Yet further, we see that in animals 
which do not hybernate, as in man, prolonged exposure to 
extreme cold, produces an irresistible tendency to sleep 
(which implies a lowering of the functional activity) ; and 
then, if the abstraction of heat continues, this sleep ends in 
death, or arrest of functional activity. Lastly, we see that 
when the temperature is lowered till the contained water 
solidifies, there is a stoppage not only of those molecular re- 
arrangements which constitute life and development, but also 
of those molecular re- arrangements which constitute decom- 
position. 

Evidently then, both sensible and insensible agitations 
among the components of an aggregate, facilitate any re- dis- 
tributions to which there may be a tendency. When that 
rhythmic change in the relative positions of the units which 
constitutes vibration, is considerable, the relative positions of 
the units more readily undergo permanent changes through 
the action of incident forces. 

§ 104. These special conditions to Evolution, are clearly 
but different forms of one general condition. The abstract 
proposition, that a permanent re-arrangement of units is pos- 
sible only when they have neither absolute immobility nor 
absolute mobility with respect to each other, we saw to be 
practically equivalent to the proposition, that extreme cohe- 
sion and extreme want of cohesion among the units are un- 
favourable to Evolution. Be this cohesion or want of cohe- 



THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 347 

sion that which physically characterizes the matter as we 
ordinarily know it ; be it that cohesion or want of cohesion 
distinguished as chemical ; or be it that cohesion or want of 
cohesion consequent on the degree of molecular vibration ; 
matters not, in so far as the general conclusion is concerned. 
Inductively as well as deductively, we find that the genesis 
•of such permanent changes in the relative positions of parts, 
as can be effected without destroying the continuity of the 
aggregate, implies a medium stability in the relative posi- 
tions of the parts : be this stability physical, chemical, or 
that which varies with the state of agitation. And as might 
be anticipated a priori, it is proved a posteriori, that this re- 
arrangement of parts goes on most actively in those aggre- 
gates whose units are moderately influenced by all these 
forces which affect their mobility. 

Here also may properly be added the remark, that to effect 
these changes in the relative positions of parts, the incident 
forces must range within certain limits. It is wholly a 
question of the ratio between those agencies which hold the 
units in their positions, and those agencies which tend to 
change their positions. Having given intensities in the 
powers that oppose re- arrangement, there need proportionate 
intensities in the powers that work re-arrangement. As 
there must be neither too great nor too little cohesion; so 
there must be neither too little nor too great amounts of the 
influences antagonistic to cohesion. While a slight mechani- 
cal strain produces no lasting alterations in the relative posi- 
tions of parts, an excessive mechanical strain causes disruption 
— causes so great an alteration in the relative positions of 
parts as to destroy their union in one aggregate. While a 
very feeble chemical affinity brought to bear on the associated 
units, fails to work any re-arrangement of them ; a chemical 
affinity that is extremely intense, destroys their structural 
continuity, and reduces such complex re- arrangements as 
have been made, to comparatively simple ones. And while 
in the absence of adequate thermal undulations, the units 



348 THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 

have not freedom enough to obey the re-arranging influences 
impressed on them, the incidence of violent thermal undula- 
tions gives them such extreme freedom that they break their 
connexions, and the aggregate lapses into a liquid or gaseous 
form. 

On the one hand, therefore, the statical forces which up- 
hold the state of aggregation must not be so great as wholly 
to prevent those changes of relative position among the 
units which the dynamical forces tend to produce ; and, on 
the other hand, the dynamical forces must not be so great as 
wholly to overcome the statical forces, and destroy the state 
of aggregation. The excess of the dynamical forces must 
be sufficient to produce Evolution, but not sufficient to produce 
Dissolution. 

§ 105. And now we are naturally introduced to a consider- 
ation which, though it does not come quite within the limits 
of this chapter as expressed in its title, may yet be more 
conveniently dealt with here than elsewhere. Hitherto we 
have studied the metamorphosis of things, only as exhibited 
in the changed distribution of matter. It remains to look at 
it as exhibited in the changed distribution of motion. The 
definition of Evolution in its material aspect, has to be 
supplemented by a definition of Evolution in its dynamical 
aspect. 

On inquiring the source of the sensible motions seen in 
every kind of Evolution, we find them all traceable to insensible 
motions ; either of that tangible matter which we perceive as 
constituting the objects around us, or of that intangible mat- 
ter which we infer as occupying space. A brief reconsideration 
of the facts will make this obvious. The formation of 

celestial bodies, supposing it caused by the union of dispersed 
units, must, from the beginning, have involved a diminished 
motion of these units with respect to each other ; and such 
motion as each resulting body acquired, must previously 
have existed in the motions of its units. If concrete mat- 



THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 349 

ter has arisen by the aggregation of diffused matter, then 
concrete motion has arisen by the aggregation of diffused 
motion. That which now exists as the movement of masses, 
implies the cessation of an equivalent molecular move- 
ment. Those transpositions of matter which consti- 
tute geological changes, are clearly referable to the same 
source. As before shown, the denudation of lands and deposit 
of new strata, are effected by water in the course of its descent 
from the clouds to the sea, or during the arrest of those un- 
dulations produced on it by winds ; and, as before shown, the 
elevation of water to the height whence it fell, is due to solar 
heat, as is also the genesis of those aerial currents which drift 
it about when evaporated and agitate its surface when con- 
densed. That is to say, the molecular motion of the etherial 
medium, is transformed into the motion of gases, thence into 
the motion of liquids, and thence into the motion of solids — 
stages in each of which, successively, a certain amount of 
molecular motion is lost and an equivalent motion of masses 
produced. If we seek the origin of vital movements, 
we soon reach a like conclusion. The actinic rays issuing 
from the Sun, enable the plant to reduce special elements exist- 
ing in gaseous combination around it, to a solid form, — enable 
the plant, that is, to grow and carry on its functional changes. 
And since growth, equally with circulation of sap, is a mode of 
sensible motion, while those rays which have been expended in 
generating it consist of insensible motions, we have here, too, a 
transformation of the kind alleged. Animals, derived as their 
forces are, directly or indirectly, from plants, carry this trans- 
formation a step further. The automatic movements of the 
viscera, together with the voluntary movements of the limbs 
and body at large, arise at the expense of certain molecular 
movements throughout the nervous and muscular tissues ; and 
these originally arose at the expense of certain other molecular 
movements propagated by the Sun to the Earth; so that 
both the structural and functional motions which organic 
Evolution displays, are motions of aggregates generated by 



350 THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 

the arrested motions of units. Even with the aggre- 

gates of these aggregates the same rule holds. For among 
associated men, the progress is ever towards a merging of in- 
dividual actions in the actions of corporate bodies. An un- 
developed society is composed of members between whom 
there is little concert : they fulfil their several wants without 
mutual aid ; and only on occasions of aggression or defence, 
act together — occasions on which their combination, small as 
it is in extent, frequently fails because it is so imperfect. 
In the course of civilization, however, co-operation becomes 
step by step more decided. As tribes grow into nations, there 
result larger aggregates, each of which has a joint political 
life — a common policy and movement with respect to other 
aggregates. Legislative and administrative progress, in- 
volves an increase in the number of restraining agents 
brought into united and simultaneous action. In military 
organization, we see an advance from small undisciplined hordes 
of armed men, to vast bodies of regular troops, so drilled 
that the movements of the units are entirely subordinated to 
the movements of the masses. Nor does industrial develop- 
ment fail to show parallel changes. Beginning with inde- 
pendent workers, and passing step by step to the employment 
of several assistants by one master, there has ever been, and 
still is, a progress towards the co-operation of greater masses 
of labourers in the same establishment, and towards the union 
of capitalists into more numerous and larger companies : in 
both which kinds of combined action, equivalent amounts of 
individual action disappear. Under all its forms, 

then, Evolution, considered dynamically, is a decrease in the 
relative movements of parts, and an increase in the relative 
movements of wholes — using the words parts and wholes in 
their widest senses. From the infinitesimal motions of those 
infinitesimal units composing the etherial medium, to the 
larger though still insensible motions of the larger though 
still insensible units composing gaseous, fluid, and solid 
matter, and thence to the visible motions of visible aggre- 



THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 351 

gates, the advance is from molecular motion to the motion of 
masses. 

But now what of the converse process ? If the foregoing 
proposition is true, then a change from the motion of masses 
to molecular motion, is the opposite to Evolution — is Disso- 
lution. Is this so ? Of inorganic dissolution we 
have but little experience ; or at least, our experience of it is 
on too small a scale to exhibit it as the antithesis of Evolu- 
tion. We know, indeed, that when solids are dissolved in 
liquids, their dissolution implies increased movements of 
their units, at the expense of diminished movements among 
the units of their solvents ; and we know that when a liquid 
evaporates, its dissipation or dissolution similarly implies great- 
er relative movements of the units, and decrease of such com- 
bined movement as they before had. But since these small 
aggregates of inorganic matter, do not exhibit the phenomena 
of Evolution, save in the form of simple integration ; so they 
do not exhibit the phenomena of dissolution, save in the 
form of simple disintegration. Of organic dissolu- 
tion, however, our experience suffices to show that it is a de- 
crease of combined motion, and an increase in the motion of 
uncombined parts. The gradual cessation of functions, 
vegetal or animal, is a cessation of the sensible movements of 
fluids and solids. In animals, the impulsions of the body 
from place to place, first cease ; presently the limbs cannot 
be stirred ; later still the respiratory actions stop ; finally the 
heart becomes stationary, and, with it, the circulating fluids. 
That is, the transformation of molecular motion into the 
motion of masses, comes to an end. What next takes place ? 
We cannot say that sensible movements are transformed into 
insensible movements ; for sensible movements no longer exist. 
Nevertheless, the process of decay involves an increase of in- 
sensible movements ; since this is far greater in the gases 
generated by decomposition, than it is in the fluid- solid 
matters generating them. Indeed, it might be contended 
that as, during Dissolution, there is a change from the vibra- 



352 THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 

tion of large compound atoms to the vibration of small and 
comparatively simple ones, the process is strictly antithetical 
to that of Evolution. In conformity with the now current 
conception lately explained, each of the highly complex 
chemical units composing an organic body, possesses a 
rhythmic movement — a movement in which its many com- 
ponent units jointly partake. "When decomposition breaks 
up these highly complex atoms, and their constituents 
assume a gaseous form, there is both an increase of 
molecular motion implied by the diffusion, and a further 
increase implied by the resolving of such motions as the 
aggregate atoms possessed, into motions of their constituent 
atoms. So that in organic dissolution we have, first, an end 
put to that transformation of the motion of units into the 
motion of aggregates, which constitutes Evolution, dynami- 
cally considered; and we have also, though in a subtler 
sense, a transformation of the motion of aggregates into the 
motion of units. The formula equally applies to the 

dissolution of a society. When social ties, be they govern- 
mental or industrial, are destroyed, the combined actions of 
citizens lapse into uncombined actions. Those general forces 
which restrained individual doings, having disappeared, the 
only remaining restraints are those separately exercised by 
individuals on each other. There are no longer any of the 
joint operations by which men satisfy their wants ; and, in so 
far as they can, they satisfy their wants by separate opera- 
tions. That is to say, the movement of parts replaces the 
movement of wholes. 

Under its dynamical aspect then, Evolution, so far as we 
can trace it, is a change from molecular motion to the motion 
of masses ; while Dissolution, so far as we can trace it, is a 
change from the motion of masses to molecular motion. 

§ 106. To these abstract definitions may be added concrete 
ones. Besides an integration of motions corresponding to 
the integration of masses, Evolution involves an increase in 



THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 353 

the multiformity of the motions, corresponding to the increase 
in the multiformity of the masses. If, contemplating it as 
materially displayed, we find Evolution to consist in the 
change from an indefinite, homogeneous distribution of parts 
to a definite, heterogeneous distribution of parts ; then, con- 
templating Evolution as dynamically displayed, it consists in 
a change from indefinite, homogeneous motions to definite, 
heterogeneous motions. 

This change takes place under the form of an increased 
variety of rhythms. We have already seen that all motion 
is rhythmical, from the infinitesimal vibrations of infinites- 
imal molecules, up to those vast oscillations between peri- 
helion and aphelion performed by vast celestial bodies. And 
as the contrast between these extreme cases suggests, a mul- 
tiplication of rhythms must accompany a multiplication in 
the degrees and modes of aggregation, and in the relations 
of the aggregated masses to incident forces. The degree or- 
mode of aggregation will not, indeed, affect the rate or 
extent of rhythm where the incident force increases as the 
aggregate increases, which is the case with gravitation : here 
the only cause of variation in rhythm, is difference of rela- 
tion to the incident forces ; as we see in a pendulum, which, 
though unaffected in its movements by a change in the 
weight of the bob, alters its rate of oscillation when taken 
to the equator. But in all cases where the incident forces do 
not vary as the masses, every new order of aggregation 
initiates a new order of rhythm : witness the conclusion 
drawn from the recent researches into radiant heat and light, 
that the atoms of different gases have different rates of un- 
dulation. So that increased multiformity in the arrange- 
ment of matter, has necessarily generated increased multi- 
formity of rhythm; both through increased variety in the 
sizes and forms of aggregates, and through increased variety 
in their relations to the forces which move them. The 

advancing heterogeneity of motion, thus entailed by advancing 
heterogeneity in the distribution of matter, does not, however, 



354 THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 

end here. Besides multiplication in the kinds of rhythm, 
there is a progressing complexity in their combinations. As 
there arise wholes composed of heterogeneous parts, each of 
which has its own rhythm, there must arise compound 
rhythms proportionately heterogeneous. We before saw 
that this is visible even in the cyclical perturbations of the 
Solar System — simple as are its structure and movements. 
And when we contemplate highly-developed organic bodies, 
we find the complication of rhythms so great, that it defies 
definite analysis, and from moment to moment works out in 
resultants that are incalculable. 

This conception of Evolution forms a needful complement 
to that on which we have hitherto chiefly dwelt. To com- 
prehend the phenomena in their entirety, we have to con- 
template both the increasing multiformity of parts, and the 
increasing multiformity of the actions simultaneously assumed 
by these parts. At the same time that there are differentia- 
tions and integrations of the matter, there are differentiations 
and integrations of its motion. And this increasingly hete- 
rogeneous distribution of motion, constitutes Evolution func- 
tionally considered ; as distinguished from that increasingly 
heterogeneous distribution of matter, which constitutes Evolu- 
tion structurally considered. While of course, Dissolution 
exhibits the transition to a reverse distribution, both struc- 
turally and functionally. 

§ 107. One other preliminary must be set down. When 
specifically interpreting Evolution, we shall have to consider 
under their concrete forms, the various resolutions of force that 
follow its conflict with matter. Here it will be well to con- 
template such resolutions under their most general or abstract 
forms. 

Any incident force is primarily resolvable or divisible into 
its effective and non-effective portions. In mechanical impact, 
the entire momentum of a striking body is never communi- 
cated to the body struck : even under those most favourable 



THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 355 

conditions in which the striking body loses all its sensible 
motion, there still remains with it a portion of the original 
momentum, under the shape of that insensible motion pro- 
duced among its particles by the collision. Of the light or 
heat falling on any mass, a part, more or less considerable, is 
reflected ; and only, the remaining part works molecular 
changes in the mass. Next it is to be noted that the 

effective force, is itself divisible into the temporarily effective 
and the permanently effective. The units of an aggregate 
acted on, may undergo those rhythmical changes of relative 
position which constitute increased vibration, as well as 
other changes of relative position which are not from instant 
to instant neutralized by opposite ones. Of these, the first, 
disappearing in the shape of radiating undulations, leave the 
molecular arrangement as it originally was ; while the 
second conduce to that re- arrangement constituting Evo- 
lution. Yet a further distinction has to be made. 
The permanently effective force works out changes of relative 
position of two kinds — the insensible and the sensible. The 
insensible transpositions among the units are those constitut- 
ing what we call chemical composition and decomposition ; 
and it is these which we recognize as the qualitative dif- 
ferences that arise in an aggregate. The sensible transposi- 
tions are such as result when certain of the units, instead of 
being put into different relations with their immediate neigh- 
bours, are carried away from them and united together else- 
where. 

Concerning these divisions and sub-divisions of any force 
affecting an aggregate, the fact which it chiefly concerns us 
to observe, is, that they are complementary to each other. 
Of the whole incident force, the effective must be that which 
remains after deducting the non-effective. The two parts of 
the effective force must vary inversely as each other : where 
much of it is temporarily effective, little of it can be perma- 
nently effective ; and vice versa. Lastly, the permanently 
effective force, being expended in working both the insensible 



356 THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 

re-arrangements which' constitute chemical modification, and 
the sensible re- arrangements which result in structure, must 
generate of either kind an amount that is great or small in 
proportion as it has generated a small or great amount of the 
other. 

§ 108. And now of the propositions grouped together in 
this chapter, it may be well to remark that, in common with 
foregoing propositions, they have for their warrant the fund- 
amental truth with which our synthesis set out. 

That when a given force falls on any aggregate, the perma- 
nently effective part of it will produce an amount of re- 
arrangement that is inversely proportional to the cohesion 
existing among the parts of the aggregate, is demonstrable 
a priori. Whether the cohesion be mechanical or chemical, 
or whether it be temporarily modified by a changed degree 
of molecular vibration, matters not to the general conclusion. 
In all these cases it follows from the persistence of force, that 
in proportion as the units offer great resistance to alteration 
in their relative positions, must the amount of motion which 
a given force impresses on them be small. The proposition 
is in fact an identical one ; since the cohesion of units is 
known to be great or small, only by the smallness or great- 
ness of the re-arrangement which a given incident force 
produces. 

The continuity of motion we found to be a corollary from 
the persistence of force ; and from the continuity of motion, 
it follows that molecular motion and the motion of masses 
can be respectively increased only at each other's expense. 
Hence, if in the course of Evolution there arises a motion of 
masses that did not before exist, there must have ceased an 
equivalent molecular motion ; and if in the course of Disso- 
lution there arises a molecular motion that did not before 
exist, an equivalent motion of masses must have disappeared. 

Equally necessary is the conclusion that the several results 
of the force expended on any aggregate, must be comple- 



THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO EVOLUTION. 357 

mentary to each, other. It is not less obviously a corollary 
from the persistence of force, that of the whole incident force 
the effective is the part which remains after deducting the 
non-effective ; than it is, that of the effective force, whatever 
does not work permanent results, works temporary results, 
and that such amount of the permanently effective force as is 
not absorbed in producing insensible re- arrangements, will 
produce sensible re-arrangements. 



CHAPTEK XIH. 

THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS.* 

§ 109. Thus far our steps towards the interpretation of 
Evolution have been preparatory. We have dealt with the 
factors of the process, rather than the process itself. After 
the ultimate truth that, Matter, Motion, and Force, as 
cognizable by human intelligence, can neither come into 
existence nor cease to exist, we have considered certain other 
ultimate truths concerning the modes in which Force and 
Motion are manifested during the changes they produce in 
Matter. [Now we have to study the changes themselves. 
"We have here to analyze that re-arrangement in the parts of 
Matter, which occurs under the influence of Force, that is un- 
changeable in quantity though changeable in form, through 
the medium of Motion taking place rhythmically along lines 
of least resistance. The proposition which comes first in 
logical order, is, that some re-arrangement must result ; and 
this proposition may be best dealt with under the more 
specific shape, that the condition of homogeneity is a condi- 
tion of unstable equilibrium. 

First, as to the meaning of the terms ; respecting which 
some readers may need explanation. The phrase unstable 
equilibrium is one used in mechanics to express a balance of 
forces of such kind, that the interference of any further force, 
however minute, will destroy the arrangement previously 

* The idea developed in this chapter originally formed part of an article on 
" Transcendental Physiology,'' published in 1857. See Essays, pp. 279—290. 



THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 359 

subsisting ; and bring about a totally different arrangement. 
Thus, a stick poised on its lower end is in unstable equili- 
brium : however exactly it may be placed in a perpendicular 
position, as soon as it is left to itself it begins, at first imper- 
ceptibly, to lean on one side, and with increasing rapidity 
falls into another attitude. Conversely, a stick suspended 
from its upper end is in stable equilibrium : however much 
disturbed, it will return to the same position. The proposi- 
tion is, then, that the state of homogeneity, like the state of 
the stick poised on its lower end, is one that cannot be main- 
tained. Let us take a few illustrations. 

Of mechanical ones the most familiar is that of the scales. 
If they be accurately made, and not clogged by dirt or rust, 
it is impossible to keep a pair of scales perfectly balanced : 
eventually one scale will descend and the other ascend — they 
will assume a heterogeneous relation. Again, if we sprinkle 
over the surface of a fluid a number of equal-sized particles, 
having an attraction for each other, they will, no matter how 
uniformly distributed, by and by concentrate irregularly into 
one or more groups. Were it possible to bring a mass of 
water into a state of perfect homogeneity — a state of complete 
quiescence, and exactly equal density throughout — yet the 
radiation of heat from neighbouring bodies, by affecting 
differently its different parts, would inevitably produce in- 
equalities of density and consequent currents ; and would so 
render it to that extent heterogeneous. Take a piece of red- 
hot matter, and however evenly heated it may at first be, it 
will quickly cease to be so : the exterior, cooling faster than 
the interior, will become different in temperature from it. 
And the lapse into heterogeneity of temperature, so obvious 
in this extreme case, takes place more or less in all 
cases. The action of chemical forces supplies other 

illustrations. Expose a fragment of metal to air or water, 
and in course of time it will be coated with a film of oxide, 
carbonate, or other compound : that is — its outer parts will 
become unlike its inner parts. Usually the heterogeneity 



360 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 

produced by the action of chemical forces on the surfaces of 
masses, is not striking ; because the changed portions are 
soon washed away, or otherwise removed. But if this is pre- 
vented, comparatively complex structures result. Quarries 
of trap-rock contain some striking examples. Not un- 
frequently a piece of trap may be found reduced, by the 
action of the weather, to a number of loosely- adherent coats, 
like those of an onion. Where the block has been quite un- 
disturbed, we may trace the whole series of these, from the 
angular, irregular outer one, through successively included 
ones in which the shape becomes gradually rounded, ending 
finally in a spherical nucleus. On comparing the original 
mass of stone with this group of concentric coats, each of 
which differs from the rest in form, and probably in the state 
of decomposition at which it has arrived, we get a marked 
illustration of the multiformity to which, in lapse of time, 
a uniform body may be brought by external chemical 
action. The instability of the homogeneous is equally 

seen in the changes set up throughout the interior of a mass, 
when it consists of units that are not rigidly bound together. 
The atoms of a precipitate never remain separate, and equably 
distributed through the fluid in which they make their ap- 
pearance. They aggregate either into crystalline grains, 
each containing an immense number of atoms, or they aggre- 
gate into flocculi, each containing a yet larger number ; and 
where the mass of fluid is great, and the process prolonged, 
these flocculi do not continue equi- distant, but break up into 
groups. That is to say, there is a destruction of the balance 
at first subsisting among the diffused particles, and also of 
the balance at first subsisting among the groups into which 
these particles unite. Certain solutions of non- 

crystalline substances in highly volatile liquids, exhibit in 
the course of half an hour a whole series of changes that are 
set up in the alleged way. If for example a little shell-lac- 
varnish (made by dissolving shell-lac in coal-naptha until it 
is of the consistence of cream) be poured on a piece of paper, 



THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 361 

the surface of the varnish will shortly become marked by- 
polygonal divisions, which, first appearing round the edge of 
the mass, spread towards its centre. Under a lense these 
irregular polygons of five or more sides, are seen to be sever- 
ally bounded by dark lines, on each side of which there are 
light- coloured borders. By the addition of matter to their 
inner edges, the borders slowly broaden, and thus encroach 
on the areas of the polygons; until at length there re- 
mains nothing but a dark spot in the centre of each. At 
the same time the boundaries of the polygons become curved ; 
and they end by appearing like spherical sacs pressed toge- 
ther ; strangely simulating (but only simulating) a group of 
nucleated cells. Here a rapid loss of homogeneity is ex- 
hibited in three ways : — First, in the formation of the film, 
which is the seat of these changes ; second, in the formation 
of the polygonal sections into which this film divides ; and 
third, in the contrast that arises between the polygonal sec- 
tions round the edge, where they are small and early formed, 
and those in the centre which are larger and formed later. 

The instability thus variously illustrated is obviously con- 
sequent on the fact, that the several parts of any homoge- 
neous aggregation are necessarily exposed to different forces 
— forces that differ either in kind or amount ; and being ex- 
posed to different forces they are of necessity differently 
modified. The relations of outside and inside, and of com- 
parative nearness to neighbouring sources of influence, imply 
the reception of influences that are unlike in quantity or 
quality, or both ; and it follows that unlike changes will be 
produced in the parts thus dissimilarly acted upon. 

For like reasons it is manifest that the process must re- 
peat itself in each of the subordinate groups of units that are 
differentiated by the modifying forces. Each of these sub- 
ordinate groups, like the original group, must gradually, in 
obedience to the influences acting upon it, lose its balance of 
parts — must pass from a uniform into a multiform state. 
And so on continuously. Whence indeed it is clear 

IT 



362 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 



1011- 



that not only must the homogeneous lapse into the non- 
homogeneous, but that the more homogeneous must tend 
ever to become less homogeneous. If any given whole, in- 
stead of being absolutely uniform throughout, consist of parts 
distinguishable from each other — if each of these parts, while 
somewhat unlike other parts, is uniform within itself; then, 
each of them being in unstable equilibrium, it follows that 
while the changes set up within it must render it multiform, 
they must at the same time render the whole more multi- 
form than before. The general principle, now to be follow- 
ed out in its applications, is thus somewhat more compre- 
hensive than the title of the chapter implies. No demurrer to 
the conclusions drawn, can be based on the ground that perfect 
homogeneity nowhere exists ; since, whether that state with 
which we commence be or be not one of perfect homogeneity, 
the process must equally be towards a relative heterogeneity. 

§ 110. The stars are distributed with a three-fold irre- 
gularity. There is first the marked contrast between the 
plane of the milky way and other parts of the heavens, in 
respect of the quantities of stars within given visual areas. 
There are secondary contrasts of like kind in the milky way 
itself, which has its thick and thin places ; as well as 
throughout the celestial spaces in general, which are much 
more closely strown in some regions than in others. And 
there is a third order of contrasts produced by the aggrega- 
tion of stars into small clusters. Besides this heterogeneity 
of distribution of the stars in general, considered without 
distinction of kinds, a further such heterogeneity is disclosed 
when they are classified by their differences of colour, which 
doubtless answer to differences of physical constitution. 
While the yellow stars are found in all parts of the heavens, 
the red and blue stars are not so : there are wide regions in 
which both red and blue stars are rare ; there are regions in 
which the blue occur in considerable numbers, and there 
are other regions in which the red are comparatively abund- 



THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 363 

ant. Yet one more irregularity of like significance is pre- 
sented by the nebula?, — aggregations of matter which, what- 
ever be their nature, most certainly belong to our sidereal 
system. For the nebulae are not dispersed with anything 
like uniformity ; but are abundant around the poles of the 
galactic circle and rare in the neighbourhood of its 
plane. No one will expect that anything like a de- 

finite interpretation of this structure can be given on the 
hypothesis of Evolution, or any other hypothesis. The most 
that can be looked for is some reason for thinking that irre- 
gularities, not improbably of these kinds, would occur in the 
course of Evolution, supposing it to have taken place. Any 
one called on to assign such reason might argue, that if the 
matter of which stars and all other celestial bodies consist, be 
assumed to have originally existed in a diffused form through- 
out a space far more vast even than that which our sidereal 
system now occupies, the instability of the homogeneous 
would negative its continuance in that state. In default of 
an absolute balance among ihe forces with which the dis- 
persed particles acted on each other (which could not exist in 
any aggregation having limits) he might show that motion 
and consequent changes of distribution would necessarily 
result. The next step in the argument would be that in 
matter of such extreme tenuity and feeble cohesion there 
would be motion towards local centres of gravity, as well as 
towards the general centre of gravity ; just as, to use a 
humble illustration, the particles of a precipitate aggregate 
into flocculi at the same time that they sink towards the 
earth. He might urge that in the one case as in the other, 
these smallest and earliest local aggregations must gradually 
divide into groups, each concentrating to its own centre of 
gravity, — a process which must repeat itself on a larger and 
larger scale. In conformity with the law that motion once 
set up in any direction becomes itself a cause of subsequent 
motion in that direction, he might further infer that the 
heterogeneities thus set up would tend ever to become more 



364 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 

pronounced. Established mechanical principles would 
justify him in the conclusion that the motions of these irre- 
gular masses of slightly aggregated nebular matter towards 
their common centre of gravity must be severally rendered 
curvelinear/by the resistance of the medium from which they 
were precipitated; and that in consequence of the irregu- 
larities of distribution already set up, such conflicting curve- 
linear motions must, by composition of forces, end in a rotation 
of the incipient sidereal system. He might without difficulty 
show that the resulting centrifugal force must so far modify the 
process of general aggregation, as to prevent anything like 
uniform distribution of the stars eventually formed — that 
there must arise a contrast such as we see between the galac- 
tic circle and the rest of the heavens. He might draw the 
further not unwarrantable inference, that differences in the 
process of local concentration would probably result from the 
unlikeness between the physical conditions existing around 
the general axis of rotation and those existing elsewhere. 
To which he might add, that after the formation of distinct 
stars, the ever-increasing irregularities of distribution due to 
continuance of the same causes would produce that patchi- 
ness which distinguishes the heavens in both its larger and 
smaller areas. We need not here however commit 

ourselves to such far-reaching speculations. For the purposes 
of the general argument it is needful only to show, that 
any finite mass of diffused matter, even though vast enough 
to form our whole sidereal system, could not be in stable 
equilibrium ; that in default of absolute sphericity, absolute 
uniformity of composition, and absolute symmetry of relation 
to all forces external to it, its concentration must go on with 
an ever-increasing irregularity ; and that thus the present 
aspect of the heavens is not, so far as we can judge, incon- 
gruous with the hypothesis of a general evolution consequent 
on the instability of the homogeneous. 

Descending to that more limited form of the nebular hy- 
pothesis which regards the solar system as having resulted 






THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 365 

by gradual concentration ; and assuming this concentration 
to have advanced so far as to produce a rotating spheroid of 
nebulous matter ; let us consider what further consequence 
the instability of the homogeneous necessitates. Having 
become oblate in figure, unlike in the densities of its centre 
and surface, unlike in their temperatures, and unlike in the 
velocities with which its parts move round their common axis, 
such a mass can no longer be called homogeneous ; and 
therefore any further changes exhibited by it as a whole, can 
illustrate the general law, only as being changes from a 
more homogeneous to a less homogeneous state. Changes of 
this kind are to be found in the transformations of such of its 
parts as are still homogeneous within themselves. If we 
accept the conclusion of Laplace, that the equatorial portion 
of this rotating and contracting spheroid will at successive 
stages acquire a centrifugal force great enough to prevent 
any nearer approach to the centre round which it rotates, 
and will so be left behind by the inner parts of the spheroid 
in its still- continued contraction ; we shall find, in the fate of 
the detached ring, a fresh exemplification of the principle we 
are following out. Consisting of gaseous matter, such a 
ring, even if absolutely uniform at the time of its detach- 
ment, cannot continue so. To maintain its equilibrium there 
must be an almost perfect uniformity in the action of all 
external forces upon it (almost, we must say, because the 
cohesion, even of extremely attenuated matter, might suffice 
to neutralize very minute disturbances) ; and against this the 
probabilities are immense. In the absence of equality among 
the forces, internal and external, acting on such a ring, 
there must be a point or points at which the cohesion of 
its parts is less than elsewhere — a point or points at which 
rupture will therefore take place. Laplace assumed that 
the ring would rupture at one place only ; and would then 
collapse on itself. But this is a more than questionable 
assumption — such at least I know to be the opinion of an 
authority second to none among those now living. So 



366 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 

vast a ring, consisting of matter having such feeble cohe- 
sion, must break up into many parts. Nevertheless, it is 
still inferrable from the instability of the homogeneous, 
that the ultimate result which Laplace predicted would 
take place. For even supposing the masses of nebulous 
matter into which such a ring separated, were so equal in 
their sizes and distances as to attract each other with 
exactly equal forces (which is infinitely improbable); yet 
the unequal action of external disturbing forces would 
inevitably destroy their equilibrium — there would be one or 
more points at which adjacent masses would begin to part 
company. Separation once commenced, would with ever- 
accelerating speed lead to a grouping of the masses. And 
obviously a like result would eventually take place with the 
groups thus formed ; until they at length aggregated into a 
single mass. 

Leaving the region of speculative astronomy, let us con- 
sider the Solar System as it at present exists. And here it 
will be well, in the first place, to note a fact which may be 
thought at variance with the foregoing argument — namely, 
the still-continued existence of Saturn's rings ; and especially 
of the internal nebulous ring lately discovered. To the 
objection that the outer rings maintain their equilibrium, the 
reply is that the comparatively great cohesion of liquid 
or solid substance would suffice to prevent any slight tend- 
ency to rupture from taking effect. And that a nebulous 
ring here still preserves its continuity, does not really negative 
the foregoing conclusion; since it happens under the quite 
exceptional influence of those symmetrically disposed forces 
which the external rings exercise on it. Here indeed 

it deserves to be noted, that though at first sight the Satur- 
nian system appears at variance with the doctrine that a 
state of homogeneity is one of unstable equilibrium, it does 
in reality furnish a curious confirmation of this doctrine. For 
Saturn is not quite concentric with his rings ; and it has 
been proved mathematically that were he and his rings con- 



THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 367 

centrically situated, they could not remain so : the homo- 
geneous relation being unstable, would gravitate into a 
heterogeneous one. And this fact serves to remind us of the 
allied one presented throughout the whole Solar System. All 
orbits, whether of planets or satellites, are more or less ex- 
centric — none of them are perfect circles; and were they 
perfect circles they would soon become ellipses. Mutual per- 
turbations would inevitably generate excentricities. That is 
to say, the homogeneous relations would lapse into hetero- 
geneous ones. J 

§ 111. Already so many references have been made to the 
gradual formation of a crust over the originally incandescent 
Earth, that it may be thought superfluous again to name it. 
It has not, however, been before considered in connexion with 
the general principle under discussion. Here then it must 
be noted as a necessary consequence of the instability of the 
homogeneous. In this cooling down and solidification of 
the Earth's surface, we have one of the simplest, as well as 
one of the most important, instances, of that change from 
a uniform to a multiform state which occurs in any mass 
through exposure of its different parts to different condi- 
tions. To the differentiation of the Earth's exterior 
from its interior thus brought about, we must add one of the 
most conspicuous differentiations which the exterior itself 
afterwards undergoes, as being similarly brought about. "Were 
the conditions to which the surface of the Earth is exposed, 
alike in all directions, there would be no obvious reason why 
certain of its parts should become permanently unlike the rest. 
But being unequally exposed to the chief external centre of 
force — the Sun— its main divisions become unequally modified: 
as the crust thickens and cools, there arises that contrast, 
now so decided, between the polar and equatorial regions. 

Along with these most marked physical differentiations of 
the Earth, which are manifestly consequent on the instability 
of the homogeneous, there have been going on numerous 



368 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 

chemical differentiations, admitting of similar interpreta- 
tion. Without raising the question whether, as some think, 
the so-called simple substances are themselves compounded of 
unknown elements (elements which we cannot separate by 
artificial heat, but which existed separately when the heat of 
the Earth was greater than any which we can produce), — 
without raising this question, it will suffice the present pur- 
pose to show how, in place of that comparative homogeneity 
of the Earth's crust, chemically considered, which must have 
existed when its temperature was high, there has arisen, 
during its cooling, an increasing chemical heterogeneity: 
each element or compound, being unable to maintain its 
homogeneity in presence of various surrounding affinities, 
having fallen into heterogeneous combinations. Let us con- 
template this change somewhat in detail. There is 
every reason to believe that at an extreme heat, the bodies 
we call elements cannot combine. Even under such heat as 
can be generated artificially, some very strong affinities yield; 
and the great majority of chemical compounds are decom- 
posed at much lower temperatures. "Whence it seems not 
improbable that, when the Earth was in its first state of in- 
candescence, there were no chemical combinations at all. 
But without drawing this inference, let us set out with the 
unquestionable fact that the compounds which can exist at 
the highest temperatures, and which must therefore have 
been the first formed as the Earth cooled, are those of the 
simplest constitutions. The protoxides — including under 
that head the alkalies, earths, &c. — are, as a class, the most 
fixed compounds known : the majority of them resisting de- 
composition by any heat we can generate. These, consisting 
severally of one atom of each component element, are com- 
binations of the simplest order — are but one * degree less 
homogeneous than the elements themselves. More hetero- 
geneous than these, more decomposable by heat, and therefore 
later in the Earth's history, are the deutoxides, tritoxides, 
peroxides, &c. ; in which two, three, four, or more atoms of 



THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 369 

oxygen are united with one atom of metal or other base. 
Still less able to resist heat, are the salts ; which present us 
with compound atoms each made up of five, six, seven, eight, 
ten, twelve, or more atoms, of three, if not more, kinds. 
Then there are the hydrated salts, of a yet greater hetero- 
geneity, which undergo partial decomposition at much lower 
temperatures. After them come the further-complicated 
supersalts and double salts, having a stability again decreased ; 
and so throughout. After making a few unimportant quali- 
fications demanded by peculiar affinities, I believe no chemist 
will deny it to be a general law of these inorganic combina- 
tions that, other things equal, the stability decreases as the 
complexity increases. And then when we pass to the conv 
pounds that make up organic bodies, we find this general law 
still further exemplified : we find much greater complexity 
and much less stability. An atom of albumen, for instance, 
consists of 482 ultimate atoms of five different kinds. Fibrine, 
still more intricate in constitution, contains in each atom, 298 
atoms of carbon, 49 of nitrogen, 2 of sulphur, 228 of hydrogen, 
and 92 of oxygen — in all, 660 atoms ; or, more strictly 
speaking — equivalents. And these two substances are so un- 
stable as to decompose at quite moderate temperatures ; as 
that to which the outside of a joint of roast meat is 
exposed. Possibly it will be objected that some inorganic 
compounds, as phosphuretted hydrogen and chloride of nitro- 
gen, are more decomposable than most organic compounds. 
This is true. But the admission may be made without damage 
to the argument. The proposition is not that all simple com- 
binations are more fixed than all complex ones. To establish 
our inference it is necessary only to show that, as an average 
fact, the simple combinations can exist at a higher tempera- 
ture than the complex ones. And this is wholly beyond 
question. Thus it is manifest that the present chemi- 

cal heterogeneity of the Earth's surface has arisen by degrees 
as the decrease of heat has permitted ; and that it has shown 
itself in three forms — first, in the multiplication of chemical 
17* 



370 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 

compounds ; second, in the greater number of different ele- 
ments contained in the more modern of these compounds ; and 
third, in the higher and more varied multiples in which these 
more numerous elements combine. 

"Without specifying them, it will suffice just to name the 
meteorologic processes eventually set up in the Earth's at- 
mosphere, as further illustrating the alleged law. They 
equally display that destruction of a homogeneous state which 
results from unequal exposure to incident forces. 

§ 112. Take a mass of unorganized but organizable mat- 
ter — either the body of one of the lowest living forms, or the 
germ of one of the higher. Consider its circumstances. 
Either it is immersed in water or air, or it is contained with- 
in a parent organism. "Wherever placed, however, its outer 
and inner parts stand differently related to surrounding 
agencies — nutriment, oxygen, and the various stimuli. But 
this is not all. "Whether it lies quiescent at the bottom of 
the water or on the leaf of a plant ; whether it moves through 
the water preserving some definite attitude ; or whether it is 
in the inside of an adult ; it equally results that certain parts 
of its surface are more exposed to surrounding agencies than 
other parts — in some cases more exposed to light, heat, or 
oxygen, and in others to the maternal tissues and their con- 
tents. Hence must follow the destruction of its original 
equilibrium. This may take place in one of two ways. Either 
the disturbing forces may be such as to overbalance the 
affinities of the organic elements, in which case there result 
those changes which are known as decomposition ; or, as is 
ordinarily the case, such changes are induced as do not de- 
stroy the organic compounds, but only modify them : the 
parts most exposed to the modifying forces being most modi- 
fied. To elucidate this, suppose we take a few cases. 

Note first what appear to be exceptions. Certain minute 
animal forms present us either with no appreciable differen- 
tiations or with differentiations so obscure as to be made out 



THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 371 

with great difficulty. In the Rhizopods, the substance of the 
jelly-like body remains throughout life unorganized, even to 
the extent of having no limiting membrane ; as is proved by 
the fact that the thread-like processes protruded by the mass, 
coalesce on touching each other. Whether or not the nearly 
allied Amceba y of which the less numerous and more bulky 
processes do not coalesce, has, as lately alleged, something 
like a cell- wall and a nucleus, it is clear that the distinction 
of parts is very slight ; since particles of food pass bodily into 
the inside through any part of the periphery, and since when 
the creature is crushed to pieces, each piece behaves as the 
whole did. Now these cases, in which there is either no contrast 
of structure between exterior and interior or very little, though 
seemingly opposed to the above inference, are really very 
significant evidences of its truth. For what is the peculiarity 
of this division of the Protozoa 9 Its members undergo per- 
petual and irregular changes of form— they show no per- 
sistent relation of parts. What lately formed a portion of 
the interior is now protruded, and, as a temporary limb, is 
attached to some object it happens to touch. What is now a 
part of the surface will presently be drawn, along with the 
atom of nutriment sticking to it, into the centre of the mass. 
Either the relations of inner and outer have no permanent 
existence, or they are very slightly marked. But by the 
hypothesis, it is only because of their unlike positions with 
' respect to modifying forces, that the originally like units of a 
living mass become unlike. We must therefore expect no 
established differentiation of parts in creatures which exhibit 
no established differences of position in their parts ; and we 
must expect extremely little differentiation of parts where the 
differences of position are but little determined — which is 
just what we find. This negative evidence is borne 

out by positive evidence. When we turn from these pro- 
teiform specks of living jelly to organisms having an un- 
changing distribution of substance, we find differences of tis- 
sue corresponding to differences of relative position. In all 



372 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 

the higher Protozoa, as also in the Protophyta, we meet with 
a fundamental differentiation into cell-membrane and cell- 
contents ; answering to that fundamental contrast of con- 
ditions implied by the terms outside and inside. On 
passing from what are roughly classed as unicellular organ- 
isms, to the lowest of those which consist of aggregated cells, 
we equally observe the connection between structural differ- 
ences and differences of circumstance, Negatively, we see 
that in the sponge, permeated throughout by currents of sea- 
water, the indefiniteness of organization corresponds with the 
absence of definite unlikeness of conditions : the peripheral 
and central portions are as little contrasted in structure as in 
exposure to surrounding agencies. While positively, we see 
that in a form like the Thalassicolla, which, though equally 
humble, maintains its outer and inner parts in permanently 
unlike circumstances, there is displayed a rude structure 
obviously subordinated to the primary relations of centre and 
surface : in all its many and important varieties, the parts 
exhibit a more or less concentric arrangement. 

After this primary modification, by which the outer tissues 
are differentiated from the inner, the next in order of con- 
stancy and importance is that by which some part of the 
outer tissues is differentiated from the rest ; and this corre- 
sponds with the almost universal fact that some part of the 
outer tissues is more exposed to certain environing influences 
than the rest. Here, as before, the apparent exceptions are 
extremely significant. Some of the lowest vegetal organisms, 
as the Hematococci and Protococci, evenly imbedded in a 
mass of mucus, or dispersed through the Arctic snow, display 
no differentiations of surface ; the several parts of their sur- 
faces being subjected to no definite contrasts of conditions. 
Ciliated spheres such as the Volvox have no parts of their 
periphery unlike other parts ; and it is not to be expected 
that they should have ; since, as they revolve in all directions, 
they do not, in traversing the water, permanently expose any 
part to special conditions. But when we come to organisms 



THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 373 

that are either fixed, or while moving preserve definite atti- 
tudes, we no longer find uniformity of surface. The most 
general fact which can be asserted with respect to the struc- 
tures of plants and animals, is, that however much alike in 
shape and texture the various parts of the exterior may at 
first be, they acquire unlikenesses corresponding to the un- 
likenesses of their relations to surrounding agencies. The cili- 
ated germ of a Zoophyte, which, during its locomotive stage, 
is distinguishable only into outer and inner tissues, no sooner 
becomes fixed, than its upper end begins to assume a different 
structure from its lower. The disc-shaped gemmce of the 
Marchantia, originally alike on both surfaces, and falling at 
random with either side uppermost, immediately begin to 
develop rootlets on the under side, and stotnata on the upper 
side : a fact proving beyond question, that this primary differ- 
entiation is determined by this fundamental contrast of con- 
ditions. 

Of course in the germs of higher organisms, the metamor- 
phoses immediately due to the instability of the homogeneous, 
are soon masked by those due to the assumption of the hered- 
itary type. Such early changes, however, as are common to 
all classes of organisms, and so cannot be ascribed to heredity, 
entirely conform to the hypothesis. A germ which has un- 
dergone no developmental modifications, consists of a spher- 
oidal group of homogeneous cells. Universally, the first step 
in its evolution is the establishment of a difference between 
some of the peripheral cells and the cells which form the in- 
terior — some of the peripheral cells, after repeated sponta- 
neous fissions, coalesce into a membrane ; and by continuance 
of the process this membrane spreads until it speedily invests 
the entire mass, as in mammals, or, as in birds, stops short of 
that for some time. Here we have two significant facts. 
The first is, that the primary unlikeness arises between the 
exterior and the interior. The second is, that the change 
which thus initiates development, does not take place simul- 
taneously over the whole exterior; but commences at one 



374 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 

place, and gradually involves the rest. Now these facts 
are just those which might be inferred from the instability of 
the homogeneous. The surface must, more than any other 
part, become unlike the centre, because it is most dissimi- 
larly conditioned ; and all parts of the surface cannot 
simultaneously exhibit this differentiation, because they can- 
not be exposed to the incident forces with absolute uniform- 
ity. One other general fact of like implication re- 
mains. Whatever be the extent of this peripheral layer of 
cells, or blastoderm as it is called, it presently divides into 
two layers — the serous and mucous ; or, as they have been 
otherwise called, the ectoderm and the endoderm. The first 
of these is formed from that portion of the layer which lies 
in contact with surrounding agents ; and the second of them 
is formed from that portion of the layer which lies in contact 
with the contained mass of yelk. That is to say, after the 
primary differentiation, more or less extensive, of surface 
from centre, the resulting superficial portion undergoes a 
secondary differentiation into inner and outer parts — a 
differentiation which is clearly of the same order with the 
preceding, and answers to the next most marked contrast of 
conditions. 

But, as already hinted, this principle, understood in the 
simple form here presented, supplies no key to the detailed 
phenomena of organic development. It fails entirely to ex- 
plain generic and specific peculiarities ; and indeed leaves us 
equally in the dark respecting those more important dis- 
tinctions by which families and orders are marked out. 
"Why two ova, similarly exposed in the same pool, should 
become the one a fish, and the other a reptile, it cannot tell 
us. That from two different eggs placed under the same 
hen, should respectively come forth a duckling and a chicken, 
is a fact not to be accounted for on the hypothesis above 
developed. We have here no alternative but to fall back 
upon the unexplained principle of hereditary transmission. 
The capacity possessed by an unorganized germ of unfolding 



THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 375 

into a complex adult, which repeats ancestral traits in the 
minutest details, and that even when it has been placed in 
conditions unlike those of its ancestors, is a capacity we cannot 
at present understand. That a microscopic portion of seem- 
ingly structureless matter should embody an influence of such 
kind, that the resulting man will in fifty years after become 
gouty or insane, is a truth which would be incredible were it 
not daily illustrated. Should it however turn out, as 

we shall hereafter find reason for suspecting, that these complex 
differentiations which adults exhibit, are themselves the 
slowly accumulated and transmitted results of a process like 
that seen in the first changes of the germ ; it will follow that 
even those embryonic changes due to hereditary influence, 
are remote consequences of the alleged law. Should it be 
shown that the slight modifications wrought during life on 
each adult, and bequeathed to offspring along with all like 
preceding modifications, are themselves unlikenesses of parts 
that are produced by unlikenesses of conditions ; then it will 
follow that the modifications displayed in the course of em- 
bryonic development, are partly direct consequences of the 
instability of the homogeneous, and partly indirect conse- 
quences of it. To give reasons for entertaining this 
hypothesis, however, is not needful for the justification of the 
position here taken. It is enough that the most conspicuous 
differentiations which incipient organisms universally display, 
correspond to the most marked differences of conditions to 
which their parts are subject. It is enough that the habitual 
contrast between outside and inside, which we know is pro- 
duced in inorganic masses by unlikeness of exposure to inci- 
dent forces, is strictly paralleled by the first contrast that 
makes its appearance in all organic masses. 

It remains to point out that in the assemblage of organisms 
constituting a species, the principle enunciated is equally 
traceable. We have abundant materials for the induction 
that each species will not remain uniform, but is ever becom- 
ing to some extent multiform ; and there is ground for the 



376 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 

deduction that this lapse from homogeneity to heterogeneity is 
caused by the subjection of its members to unlike sets of 
circumstances. The fact that in every species, animal and 
vegetal, the individuals are never quite alike ; joined with 
the fact that there is in every species a tendency to the pro- 
duction of differences marked enough to constitute varieties ; 
form a sufficiently wide basis for the induction. While the 
deduction is confirmed by the familiar experience that varieties 
are most numerous and decided where, as among cultivated 
plants and domestic animals, the conditions of life depart 
from the original ones, most widely and in the most numerous 
ways. Whether we regard "natural selection" as wholly, 
or only in part, the agency through which varieties are 
established, matters not to the general conclusion. For as 
the survival of any variety proves its constitution to be in 
harmony with a certain aggregate of surrounding forces — as 
the multiplication of a variety and the usurpation by it of an 
area previously occupied by some other part of the species, 
implies different effects produced by such aggregate of forces 
on the two, it is clear that this aggregate of forces is the 
real cause of the differentiation — it. is clear that if the variety 
supplants the original species in some localities but not in 
others, it does so because the aggregate of forces in the one 
locality is unlike that in the other — it is clear that the lapse 
of the species from a state of homogeneity to a state of hetero- 
geneity arises from the exposure of its different parts to 
different aggregates of forces. 

§ 113. Among mental phenomena it is difficult to establish 
the alleged law without an analysis too extensive for the 
occasion. To show satisfactorily how states of consciousness, 
originally homogeneous, become heterogeneous through dif- 
ferences in the changes wrought by different forces, would 
require us carefully to trace out the organization of early 
experiences. Were this done it would become manifest that 
the development of intelligence, is, under one of its chief 



THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 377 

aspects, a dividing into separate classes, the tinlike things 
previously confounded together in one class — a formation of 
sub-classes and sub-sub-classes, until the once confused ag- 
gregate of objects known, is resolved into an aggregate which 
unites extreme heterogeneity among its multiplied groups, 
with complete homogeneity among the members of each 
group. If, for example, we followed, through ascending grades 
of creatures, the genesis of that vast structure of knowledge 
acquired by sight, we should find that in the first stage, 
where eyes suflice for nothing beyond the discrimination of 
light from darkness, the only possible classifications of objects 
seen, must be those based on the manner in which light is 
obstructed, and the degree in which it is obstructed. "We 
should find that by such undeveloped visual organs, the 
shadows traversing the rudimentary retina would be merely 
distinguished into those of the stationary objects which 
the creature passed during its own movements, and those 
of the moving objects which came near the creature while 
it was at rest ; and that so the extremely general clas- 
sification of visible things into stationary and moving, would 
be the earliest formed. We should find that whereas the 
simplest eyes are not fitted to distinguish between an obstruc- 
tion of light caused by a small object close to, and an obstruc- 
tion caused by a large object at some distance, eyes a little 
more developed must be competent to such a distinction; 
whence must result a vague differentiation of the class of 
moving objects, into the nearer and the more remote. We 
should find that such further improvements in vision as those 
which make possible a better estimation of distances by 
adjustment of the optic axes, and those which, through en- 
largement and subdivision of the retina, make possible the dis- 
crimination of shapes, must have the effects of giving greater 
definiteness to the classes already formed, and of sub- dividing 
these into smaller classes, consisting of objects less unlike. And 
we should find that each additional refinement of the percep- 
tive organs, must similarly lead to a multiplication of divisions 



378 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 

and a sharpening of the limits of each division. In every infant 
might be traced the analogous transformation of a confused 
aggregate of impressions of surrounding objects, not recognized 
as differing in their distances, sizes, and shapes, into separate 
classes of objects unlike each other in these and various other 
respects. And in the one case as in the other, it might be 
shown that the change from this first indefinite, incoherent 
and comparatively homogeneous consciousness, to a definite, 
coherent, and heterogeneous one, is due to differences in the 
actions of incident forces on the organism. These 

brief indications of what might be shown, did space permit, 
must here suffice. Probably they will give adequate clue to 
an argument by which each reader may satisfy himself that 
the course of mental evolution offers no exception to the 
general law. In further aid of such an argument, I will here 
add an illustration that is comprehensible apart from the 
process of mental evolution as a whole. 

It has been remarked (I am told by Coleridge, though I 
have been unable to find the passage) that with the advance 
of language, words which were originally alike in their 
meanings acquire unlike meanings — a change which he 
expresses by the formidable word " desynonymization." 
Among indigenous words this loss of equivalence cannot 
be clearly shown; because in them the divergencies of 
meaning began before the dawn of literature. But among 
words that have been coined, or adopted from other 
languages, since the writing of books commenced, it is 
demonstrable. In the old divines, miscreant is used in 
its etymological sense of unbeliever ; but in modern speech it 
has entirely lost this sense. Similarly with evil-doer and 
malefactor: exactly synonymous as these are by derivation, 
they are no longer synonymous by usage : by a malefactor 
we now understand a convicted criminal, which is far from 
being the acceptation of evil-doer. The verb produce, bears in 
Euclid its primary meaning — to prolong, or draw out ; but 
the now largely developed meanings of produce have little in 



THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 379 

common with the meanings of prolong, or draw out. In the 
Church of England liturgy, an odd effect results from the 
occurrence of prevent in its original sense — to come before, 
instead of its modern specialized sense — to come before with the 
effect of arresting. But the most conclusive cases are those 
in which the contrasted words consist of the same parts differ- 
ently combined ; as in go under and undergo. We go under 
a tree, and we undergo a pain. But though, if analytically 
considered, the meanings of these expressions would be the 
same were the words transposed, habit has so far modified 
their meanings that we could not without absurdity speak of 
undergoing a tree and going under a pain. Countless 

such instances might be brought to show that between two 
words which are originally of like force, an equilibrium can- 
not be maintained. Unless they are daily used in exactly 
equal degrees, in exactly similar relations (against which 
there are infinite probabilities), there necessarily arises a habit 
of associating one rather than the other with particular acts, 
or objects. Such a habit, once commenced, becomes confirm- 
ed ; and gradually their homogeneity of meaning disappears. 
In each individual we may see the tendency which inevitably 
leads to this result. A certain vocabulary and a certain set 
of phrases, distinguish the speech of each person : each per- 
son habitually uses certain words in places where other words 
are habitually used by other persons; and there is a con- 
tinual recurrence of favourite expressions. This inability to 
maintain a balance in the use of verbal symbols, which cha- 
racterizes every man, characterizes, by consequence, aggre- 
gates of men ; and the desynonymization of words is the ulti- 
mate effect. 

Should any difficulty be felt in understanding how these 
mental changes exemplify a law of physical transformations 
that are wrought by physical forces, it will disappear on con- 
templating acts of mind as nervous functions. It will be 
seen that each loss of equilibrium above instanced, is a loss of 
functional equality between some two elements of the nervous 



380 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 

system. And it will be seen that, as in other cases, this loss 
of functional equality is due to differences in the incidence of 
forces. 

§ 114. Masses of men, in common with all other masses, 
show a like proclivity similarly caused. Small combinations 
and large societies equally manifest it ; and in the one, as in 
the other, both governmental and industrial differentiations 
are initiated by it. Let us glance at the facts under these 
two heads. 

A business partnership, balanced as the authorities of its 
members may theoretically be, practically becomes a union in 
which the authority of one partner is tacitly recognized as 
greater than that of the other or others. Though the share- 
holders have given equal powers to the directors of their 
company, inequalities of power soon arise among them ; and 
usually the supremacy of some one director grows so marked, 
that his decisions determine the course which the board takes. 
Nor in associations for political, charitable, literary, or other 
purposes, do we fail to find a like process of division into 
dominant and subordinate parties ; each having its leader, its 
members of less influence, and its mass of uninfluential mem- 
bers. These minor instances in which unorganized groups of 
men, standing in homogeneous relations, may be watched 
gradually passing into organized groups of men standing in 
heterogeneous relations, give us the key to social inequalities. 
Barbarous and civilized communities are alike characterized 
by separation into classes, as well as by separation of each 
class into more important and less important units ; and this 
structure is manifestly the gradually- consolidated result of a 
process like that daily exemplified in trading and other com- 
binations. So long as men are constituted to act on one an- 
other, either by physical force or by force of character, the 
struggles for supremacy must finally be decided in favour of 
some one ; and the difference once commenced must tend to 
become ever more marked. Its unstable equilibrium being de- 



THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 381 

stroyed, the uniform must gravitate with increasing rapidity 
into the multiform. And so supremacy and subordination 
must establish themselves, as we see they do, throughout the 
whole structure of a society, from the great class- divisions 
pervading its entire body, down to village cliques, and even 
down to every posse of school-boys. Probably it will 

be objected that such changes result, not £rom the homoge- 
neity of the original aggregations, but from their non-homo- 
geneity — from certain slight differences existing among their 
units at the outset. This is doubtless the proximate cause. 
In strictness, such changes must be regarded as transforma- 
tions of the relatively homogeneous into the relatively hetero- 
geneous. But it is abundantly clear that an aggregation of 
men, absolutely alike in their endowments, would eventually 
undergo a similar transformation. For in the absence of 
perfect uniformity in the lives severally led by them — in 
their occupations, physical conditions, domestic relations, and 
trains of thought and feeling — there must arise differences 
among them ; and these must finally initiate social differen- 
tiations. Even inequalities of health caused by accidents, 
must, by entailing inequalities of physical and mental power, 
disturb the exact balance of mutual influences among the 
units; and the balance once disturbed, must inevitably be 
lost. Whence, indeed, besides seeing that a body of men 
absolutely homogeneous in their governmental relations, must, 
like all other homogeneous bodies, become heterogeneous, 
we also see that it must do this from the same ultimate cause 
— unequal exposure of its parts to incident forces. 

The first industrial divisions of societies are much more 
obviously due to unlikenesses of external circumstances. 
Such divisions are absent until such unlikenesses are estab- 
lished. Nomadic tribes do not permanently expose any 
groups of their members to special local conditions ; nor does 
a stationary tribe, when occupying only a small area, main- 
tain from generation to generation marked contrasts in the 
local conditions of its members ; and in such tribes there are 



382 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 

no decided economical differentiations. But a community 
which, growing populous, has overspread a large tract, and 
has become so far settled that its members live and die in their 
respective districts, keeps its several sections in different 
physical circumstances ; and then they no longer remain alike 
in their occupations. Those who live dispersed continue to 
hunt or cultivate the earth ; .hose who spread to the sea-shore 
fall into maritime occupations ; while the inhabitants of some 
spot chosen, perhaps for its centrality, as one of periodical 
assemblage, become traders, and a town springs up. Each 
of these classes undergoes a modification of character conse- 
quent on its function, and better fitting it to its function. 
Later in the process of social evolution these local adapt- 
ations are greatly multiplied. A result of differences in 
soil and climate, is that the rural inhabitants in different 
parts of the kingdom have their occupations partially special- 
ized ; and become respectively distinguished as chiefly pro- 
ducing cattle, or sheep, or wheat, or oats, or hops, or cyder. 
People living where coal-fields are discovered are transform- 
ed into colliers ; Cornishmen take to mining because Corn- 
wall is metalliferous ; and the iron-manufacture is the domi- 
nant industry where iron-stone is plentiful. Liverpool 
has assumed the office of importing cotton, in consequence of 
its proximity to the district where cotton goods are made ; 
and for analogous reasons, Hull has become the chief port at 
which foreign wools are brought in. Even in the establish- 
ment of breweries, of dye-works, of slate-quarries, of brick- 
yards, we may see the same truth. So that both in general 
and in detail, the specializations of the social organism which 
characterize separate districts, primarily depend on local 
circumstances. Those divisions of labour which under an- 
other aspect were interpreted as due to the setting up of motion 
in the directions of least resistance (§ 91), are here in- 
terpreted as due to differences in the incident forces ; and 
the two interpretations are quite consistent with each 
other. For that which in each case determines the direction 



THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 383 

of least resistance, is the distribution of the forces to be over- 
come ; and hence unlikenesses of distribution in separate 
localities, entails unlikenesses in the course of human action 
in those localities — -entails -industrial differentiations. 

§ 115. In common with the general truths set forth in 
preceding chapters, the instability of the homogeneous is de- 
monstrable a priori. It, like each of them, is a corollary from 
the persistence of force. Already this has been tacitly im- 
plied by assigning unlikeness in the exposure of its part to 
surrounding agencies, as the reason why a uniform mass loses 
its uniformity. But here it will be proper to expand this 
tacit implication into definite proof. 

On striking a mass of matter with such force as either to 
indent it or make it fly to pieces, we see both that the blow 
affects differently its different parts, and that the differences 
are consequent on the unlike relations of its parts to the 
force impressed. The part with which the striking body 
comes in contact, receiving the whole of the communicated 
momentum, is driven in towards the centre of the mass. 
It thus compresses and tends to displace the more centrally 
situated portions of the mass. These, however, cannot be 
compressed or thrust out of their places without pressing on 
all surrounding portions. $ And when the blow is- violent 
enough to fracture the mass, we see, in the radial dispersion 
of its fragments, that the original momentum, in being dis- 
tributed throughout it, has been divided into numerous minor 
momenta, unlike in their directions. We see that these di- 
rections are determined by the positions of the parts with re- 
spect to each other, and with respect to the point of impact. 
We see that the parts are differently affected by the disrup- 
tive force, because they are differently related to it in their 
directions and attachments — that the effects being the joint 
products of the cause and the conditions, cannot be alike in 
parts which are differently conditioned. A body on 

which radiant heat is falling, exemplifies this truth still more 



384 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 

clearly. Taking the simplest case (that of a sphere) we see 
that while the part nearest to the radiating centre receives 
the rays at right angles, the rays strike the other parts of the 
exposed side at all angles from 90° down to 0°. Again, the 
molecular vibrations propagated through the mass from the 
surface which receives the heat, must proceed inwards at an- 
gles differing for each point. Further, the interior parts of 
the sphere affected by the vibrations proceeding from all 
points of the heated side, must be dissimilarly, affected in pro- 
pprtion as their positions are dissimilar. So that whether 
they be on the recipient area, in the middle, or at the remote 
side, the constituent atoms are all thrown into states of vibra- 
tion more or less unlike each other. 

But now, what is the ultimate meaning of the conclusion 
that a uniform force produces different changes throughout a 
uniform mass, because the parts of the mass stand in different 
relations to the force ? Fully to understand this, we must 
contemplate each part as simultaneously subject to other 
forces — those of gravitation, of cohesion, of molecular motion, 
&c. The effect wrought by an additional force, must be a 
resultant of it and the forces already in action. If the forces 
already in action on two parts of any aggregate, are different in 
their directions, the effects produced on these two parts by like 
forces must be different in their directions. Why must they be 
different ? They must be different because such unlikeness as 
exists between the two sets of factors, is made by the presence 
in the one of some specially- directed force that is not pre- 
sent in the other; and that this force will produce an 
effect, rendering the total result in the one case unlike that 
in the other, is a necessary corollary from the persistence of 
force. Still more manifest does it become that the dis- 

similarly-placed parts of any aggregate must be dissimilarly 
modified by an incident force, when we remember that the 
quantities of the incident force to which they are severally 
subject, are not equal, as above supposed ; but are nearly al- 
ways very unequal. The outer parts of masses are usuaUy 



THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 385 

alone exposed to chemical actions ; and not only are their 
inner parts shielded from the affinities of external elements, 
but such affinities are brought to bear unequally on their 
surfaces ; since chemical action sets up currents through the 
medium in which it takes place, and so brings to the various 
parts of the surface unequal quantities of the active agent. 
Again, the amounts of any external radiant force which the 
different parts of an aggregate receive, are widely contrasted : 
we have the contrast between the quantity falling on the 
side next the radiating centre, and the quantity, or rather no 
quantity, falling on the opposite side ; we have contrasts in 
the quantities received by differently- placed areas on the 
exposed side ; and we have endless contrasts between the 
quantities received by the various parts of the interior. Simi- 
larly when mechanical force is expended on any aggregate, 
either by collision, continued pressure, or tension, the amounts 
of strain distributed throughout the mass are manifestly 
unlike for unlike positions. But to say the different parts of 
an aggregate receive different quantities of any incident force, 
is to say that their states are modified by it in different 
degrees — is to say that if they were before homogeneous in 
their relations they must be rendered to a proportionate 
extent heterogeneous ; since, force being persistent, the 
different quantities of it falling on the different parts, 
must work in them different quantities of effect — different 
changes. Yet one more kindred deduction is required 

to complete the argument. We may, by parallel reasoning, 
reach the conclusion that, even apart from the action of any ex- 
ternal force, the equilibrium of a homogeneous aggregate must 
be destroyed by the unequal actions of its parts on each other. 
That mutual influence which produces aggregation (not to 
mention other mutual influences) must work different effects 
on the different parts ; since they are severally exposed to it 
in unlike amounts and directions. This will be clearly seen 
on remembering that the portions of which the whole is made 
up, may be severally regarded as minor wholes ; that on each of 
18 



386 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 

these minor wholes, the action of the entire aggregate then 
becomes an external incident force ; that such external inci- 
dent force must, as above shown, work unlike changes in the 
parts of any such minor whole ; and that if the minor wholes 
are severally thus rendered heterogeneous, the entire aggre- 
gate is rendered heterogeneous. 

The instability of the homogeneous is thus deducible from 
that primordial truth which underlies our intelligence. One 
stable homogeneity only, is hypothetically possible. If centres 
of force, absolutely uniform in their powers, were diffused 
with absolute uniformity through unlimited space, they would 
remain in equilibrium. This however, though a verbally 
intelligible supposition, is one that cannot be represented in 
thought ; since unlimited space is inconceivable. But all 
finite forms of the homogeneous — all forms of it which we 
can know or conceive, must inevitably lapse into hetero- 
geneity. In three several ways does the persistence of force 
necessitate this. Setting external agencies aside, each unit 
of a homogeneous whole must be differently affected from 
any of the rest by the aggregate action of the rest upon it. 
The resultant force exercised by the aggregate on each unit, 
being in no two cases alike in both amount and direction, and 
usually not in either, any incident force, even if uniform in 
amount and direction, cannot produce like effects on the units. 
And the various positions of the parts in relation to any in- 
cident force, preventing them from receiving it in uniform 
amounts and directions, a further difference in the effects 
wrought on them is inevitably produced. 

One further remark is needed. To the conclusion that 
the changes with which Evolution commences, are thus ne- 
cessitated, remains to be added the conclusion that these 
changes must continue. The absolutely homogeneous must 
lose its equilibrium; and the relatively homogeneous must 
lapse into the relatively less homogeneous. That which 
is true of any total mass, is true of the parts into which 
it segregates. The uniformity of each such part must 



THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 387 

as inevitably be lost in multiformity, as was that of the 
original whole ; and for like reasons. And thus the continued 
changes which characterize Evolution, in so far as they are 
constituted by the lapse of the homogeneous into the hetero- 
geneous, and of the less heterogeneous into the more hetero- 
geneous, are necessary consequences of the persistence of 
force. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 

§ 116. To the cause of increasing complexity set forth in 
the last chapter, we have in this chapter to add another. 
Though secondary in order of time, it is scarcely secondary in 
order of importance. Even in the absence of the cause 
already assigned, it would necessitate a change from the 
homogeneous to the heterogeneous ; and joined with it, it 
makes this change both more rapid and more involved. To 
come in sight of it, we have but to pursue a step further, 
that conflict between force and matter already delineated. 
Let us do this. 

When a uniform aggregate is subject to a uniform force, 
we have seen that its constituents, being differently condi- 
tioned, are differently modified. But while we have con- 
templated the various parts of the aggregate as thus undergo- 
ing unlike changes, we have not yet contemplated the unlike 
changes simultaneously produced on the various parts of the 
incident force. These must be as numerous and important as 
the others. Action and re-action being equal and opposite, it 
follows that in differentiating the parts on which it falls in 
unlike ways, the incident force must itself be correspond- 
ingly differentiated. Instead of being as before, a uniform 
force, it must thereafter be a multiform force — a group of 
dissimilar forces. A few illustrations will make this truth 
manifest. 



THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 339 

A single force is divided by conflict with matter into 
forces that widely diverge. In the case lately cited, of a 
body shattered by violent collision, besides the change of the 
homogeneous mass into a heterogeneous group of scattered 
fragments, there is a change of the homogeneous momentum 
into a group of momenta, heterogeneous in both amounts 
and directions. Similarly with the forces we know as light 
and heat. After the dispersion of these by a radiating body 
towards all points, they are re-dispersed towards all points 
by the bodies on which they fall. Of the Sun's rays, issu- 
ing from him on every side, some few strike the Moon. 
These being reflected at all angles from the Moon's sur- 
face, some few of them strike the Earth. By a like 
process the few which reach the Earth are again dif- 
fused through surrounding space. And on each occasion, 
such portions of the rays as are absorbed instead of re- 
flected, undergo refractions that equally destroy their 
parallelism. More than this is true. By conflict 

with matter, a uniform force is in part changed into forces 
differing in their directions ; and in part it is changed into 
forces differing in their kinds. When one body is struck 
against another, that which we usually regard as the effect, 
is a change of position or motion in one or both bodies. But 
a moment's thought shows that this is a very incomplete 
view of the matter. Besides the visible mechanical result, 
sound is produced ; or, to speak accurately, a vibration in 
one or both bodies, and in the surrounding air : and under 
some circumstances we call this the effect. Moreover, the 
air has not simply been made to vibrate, but has had currents 
raised in it by the transit of the bodies. Further, if there is 
not that great structural change which we call fracture, there 
is a disarrangement of the particles of the two bodies around 
their point of collision ; amounting in some cases to a visible 
condensation. Yet more, this condensation is accompanied 
by disengagement of heat. In some cases a spark — that is, 
light — results, from the incandescence of a portion struck 



390 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 

off; and occasionally this incandescence is associated with 
chemical combination. Thus, by the original mechanical 
force expended in the collision, at least five, and often more, 
different kinds of forces have been produced. Take, again, 
the lighting of a candle. Primarily, this is a chemical 
change consequent on a rise of temperature. The process of 
combination having once been set going by extraneous heat, 
there is a continued formation of carbonic acid, water, &c. — 
in itself a result more complex than the extraneous heat that 
first caused it. But along with this process of combination 
there is a production of heat ; there is a production of light ; 
there is an ascending column of hot gases generated ; there 
are currents established in the surrounding air. JNor does 
the decomposition of one force into many forces end here. 
Each of the several changes worked becomes the parent of 
further changes. The carbonic acid formed, will by and by 
combine with some base ; or under the influence of sunshine 
give up its carbon to the leaf of a plant. The water will 
modify the hygrometric state of the air around ; or, if the 
current of hot gases containing it come against a cold body, 
will be condensed: altering the temperature, and perhaps 
the chemical state, of the surface it covers. The heat given 
out melts the subjacent tallow, and expands whatever it 
warms. The light, falling on various substances, calls forth 
from them reactions by which it is modified ; and so divers 
colours are produced. Similarly even with these secondary 
actions, which may be traced out into ever-multiplying 
ramifications, until they become too minute to be appreci- 
ated. Universally, then, the effect is more complex 
than the cause. Whether the aggregate on which it falls be 
homogeneous or otherwise, an incident force is transformed 
by the conflict into a number of forces that differ in their 
amounts, or directions, or kinds; or in all these respects. 
And of this group of variously-modified forces, each ulti- 
mately undergoes a like transformation. 

Let us now mark how the process of evolution is furthered 



THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 391 

by this multiplication of effects. An incident force decom- 
posed by the reactions of a body into a group of unlike forces 
— a uniform force thus reduced to a multiform force — be- 
comes the cause of a secondary increase of multiformity in 
the body which decomposes it. In the last chapter we saw 
that the several parts of an aggregate are differently modi- 
fied by any incident force. It has just been shown that by the 
reactions of the differently modified parts, the incident force 
itself must be divided into differently modified parts. Here 
it remains to point out that each differentiated division of 
the aggregate, thus becomes a centre from which a differen- 
tiated division of the original force is again diffused. And 
since unlike forces must produce unlike results, each of these 
differentiated forces must produce, throughout the aggregate, 
a further series of differentiations. This secondary 

cause of the change from homogeneity to heterogeneity, 
obviously becomes more potent in proportion as the hetero- 
geneity increases. When the parts into which any evolving 
whole has segregated itself, have diverged widely in nature, 
they will necessarily react very diversely on any incident 
force — they will divide an incident force into so many 
strongly contrasted groups of forces. And each of them be- 
coming the centre of a quite distinct set of influences, must 
add to the number of distinct secondary changes wrought 
throughout the aggregate. Yet another corollary 

must be added. The number of unlike parts of which an 
aggregate consists, as well as the degree of their unlikeness, 
is an important factor in the process. Every additional 
specialized division is an additional centre of specialized 
forces. If a uniform whole, in being itself made multiform 
by an incident force, makes the incident force multiform ; if 
a whole consisting of two unlike sections, divides an incident 
force into two unlike groups of multiform forces ; it is clear 
that each new unlike section must be a further source of com- 
plication among the forces at work throughout the mass — a 
further source of heterogeneity. The multiplication of 






392 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 

effects must proceed in geometrical progression. Each: stage 
of evolution must initiate a higher stage. 

§ 117. The force of aggregation acting on irregular masses 
of rare matter, diffused through a resisting medium, will not 
cause such masses to move in straight lines to their common 
centre of gravity ; but, as before said, each will take a curvi- 
linear path, directed to one or other side of the centre of 
gravity. All of them being differently conditioned, gravita- 
tion will impress on each a motion differing in direction, in 
velocity, and in the degree of its curvature — uniform aggre- 
gative force will be differentiated into multiform momenta. 
The process thus commenced, must go on till it produces a 
single mass of nebulous matter ; and these independent curvi- 
linear motions must result in a movement of this mass round 
its axis : a simultaneous condensation and rotation in which 
we see how two effects of the aggregative force, at first but 
slightly divergent, become at last widely differentiated. A 
gradual increase of oblateness in this revolving spheroid, must 
take place through the joint action of these two forces, as the 
bulk diminishes and the rotation grows more rapid ; and this 
we may set down as a third effect. The genesis of heat, which 
must accompany augmentation of density, is a consequence 
of yet another order — a consequence by no means simple ; 
since the various parts of the mass, being variously condensed, 
must be variously heated. Acting throughout a gaseous 
spheroid, of which the parts are unlike in their temperatures, 
the forces of aggregation and rotation must work a further 
series of changes : they must set up circulating currents, 
both general and local. At a later stage light as well as heat 
will be generated. Thus without dwelling on the likelihood 
of chemical combinations and electric disturbances, it is suf- 
ficiently manifest that, supposing matter to have originally 
existed in a diffused state, the once uniform force which 
caused its aggregation, must have become gradually divided 
into different forces ; and that each further stage of compli- 



THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 393 

cation in the resulting aggregate, must have initiated further 
subdivisions of this force — a further multiplication of effects, 
increasing the previous heterogeneity. 

This section of the argument may however be adequately 
sustained, without having recourse to any such hypothetical 
illustrations as the foregoing. The astronomical attributes 
of the Earth, will even alone suffice our purpose. Consider 
first the effects of its momentum round its axis. There is the 
oblateness of its form ; there is the alternation of day and 
night ; there are certain constant marine currents ; and 
there are certain constant aerial currents. Consider next 
the secondary series of consequences due to the divergence 
of the Earth's plane of rotation from the plane of its orbit. 
The many differences of the seasons, both simultaneous 
and successive, which pervade its surface, are thus caused. 
External attraction acting on this rotating oblate spheroid 
with inclined axis, produces the motion called nutation, and 
that slower and larger one from which follows the precession of 
the equinoxes, with its several sequences. And then by this 
same force are generated the tides, aqueous and atmospheric. 

Perhaps, however, the simplest way of showing the multi- 
plication of effects among phenomena of this order, will be to 
set down the influences of any member of the Solar System on 
the rest. A planet directly produces in neighbouring planets 
certain appreciable perturbations, complicating those other- 
wise produced in them ; and in the remoter planets it directly 
produces certain less visible perturbations. Here is a first 
series of effects. But each of the perturbed planets is itself a 
source of perturbations — each directly affects all the others. 
Hence, planet A having drawn planet B out of the position 
it would have occupied in A's absence, the perturbations 
which B causes are different from what they would else 
have been ; arid similarly with C, D, E, &c. Here then is a 
secondary series of effects : far more numerous though far 
smaller in their amounts. As these indirect perturbations 
must to some extent modify the movements of each planet, 
18* 



394 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 

there results from them a tertiary series ; and so on contin- 
ually. Thus the force exercised by any planet works a dif- 
ferent effect on each of the rest ; this different effect is from 
each as a centre partially broken up into minor different 
effects on the rest ; and so on in ever multiplying and dimin- 
ishing waves throughout the entire system. 

§ 118. If the Earth was formed by the concentration of 
diffused matter, it must at first have been incandescent ; and 
whether the nebular hypothesis be accepted or not, this ori- 
ginal incandescence of the Earth must now be regarded as in- 
ductively established — or, if not established, at least rendered 
so probable that it is a generally admitted geological doctrine. 
Several results of the gradual cooling of the Earth — as the 
formation of a crust, the solidification of sublimed elements, 
the precipitation of water, &c, have been already noticed — 
and I here again refer to them merely to point out that they 
are simultaneous effects of the one cause, diminishing heat. 
Let us now, however, observe the multiplied changes afterwards 
arising from the continuance of this one cause. The 

Earth, falling in temperature, must contract. Hence the solid 
crust at any time existing, is presently too large for the 
shrinking nucleus ; and being unable to support itself, inevit- 
ably follows the nucleus. But a spheroidal envelope cannot 
sink down into contact with a smaller internal spheroid, with- 
out disruption : it will run into wrinkles, as the rind of an 
apple does when the bulk of its interior decreases from eva- 
poration. As the cooling progresses and the envelope thick- 
ens, the ridges consequent on these contractions must become 
greater ; rising ultimately into hills and mountains ; and the 
later systems of mountains thus produced must not only be 
higher, as we find them to be, but they must be longer, as we 
also find them to be. Thus, leaving out of view other modi- 
fying forces, we see what immense heterogeneity of surface 
arises from the one cause, loss of heat — a heterogeneity which 
the telescope shows us to be paralleled on the Moon, where aque- 



THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 395 

ous and atmospheric agencies have been absent. But 

we have yet to notice another kind of heterogeneity of 
surface, similarly and simultaneously caused. While the 
Earth's crust was still thin, the ridges produced by its con- 
traction must not only have been small, but the tracts between 
them must have rested with comparative smoothness on the 
subjacent liquid spheroid ; and the water in those arctic and 
antarctic regions, where it first condensed, must have been 
evenly distributed. But as fast as the crust grew thicker 
and gained corresponding strength, the lines of fracture from 
time to time caused in it, necessarily occurred at greater dis- 
tances apart ; the intermediate surfaces followed the contract- 
ing nucleus with less uniformity; and there consequently 
resulted larger areas of land and water. If any one, after 
wrapping an orange in wet tissue paper, and observing both 
how small are the wrinkles and how evenly the intervening 
spaces lie on the surface of the orange, will then wrap it in 
thick cartridge-paper, and note both the greater height of the 
ridges and the larger spaces throughout which the paper does 
not touch the orange, he will realize the fact, that as the 
Earth's solid envelope thickened, the areas of elevation and 
depression became greater. In place of islands more or less 
homogeneously scattered over an all-embracing sea, there must 
have gradually arisen heterogeneous arrangements of conti- 
nent and ocean, such as we now know. This double 
change in the extent and in the elevation of the lands, in- 
volved yet another species of heterogeneity — that of coast -line. 
A tolerably even surface raised out of the ocean will have a 
simple, regular sea -margin ; but a surface varied by table- 
lands and intersected by mountain-chains, will, when raised 
out of the ocean, have an outline extremely irregular, alike 
in its leading features and in its details. Thus endless is the 
accumulation of geological and geographical results slowly 
brought about by this one cause — the escape of the Earth's 
primitive heat. 

When we pass from the agency which geologists term ig- 



THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 

neous, to aqueous and atmospheric agencies, we see a like 
ever-growing complication of effects. The denuding actions 
of air and water have, from the beginning, been modifying 
every exposed surface : everywhere working many different 
changes. As already shown (§ 80) the original source of those 
gaseous and fluid motions which effect denudation, is the solar 
heat. The transformation of this into various modes of force, 
according to the nature and condition of the matter on which 
it falls, is the first stage of complication. The sun's rays, 
striking at all angles a sphere, that from moment to moment 
presents and withdraws different parts of its surface, and each 
of them for a different time daily throughout the year, would 
produce a considerable variety of changes even were the 
sphere uniform. But falling as they do on a sphere sur- 
rounded by an atmosphere in some parts of which wide areas 
of cloud are suspended, and which here unveils vast tracts of 
sea, there of level land, there of mountains, there of snow and 
ice, they initiate in its several parts countless different move- 
ments. Currents of air of all sizes, directions, velocities, and 
temperatures, are set up ; as are also marine currents simi- 
larly contrasted in their characters. In this region the sur- 
face is giving off water in the state of vapour ; in that, dew 
is being precipitated ; and in the other rain is descending — 
differences that arise from the ever-changing ratio between 
the absorption and radiation of heat in each place. At one 
hour, a rapid fall in temperature leads to the formation of ice, 
with an accompanying expansion throughout the moist 
bodies frozen ; while at another, a thaw unlocks the dislocated 
fragments of these bodies. And then, passing to a second 
stage of complication, we see that the many kinds of motion 
directly or indirectly caused by the sun's rays, severally pro- 
duce results that vary with the conditions. Oxidation, 
drought, wind, frost, rain, glaciers, rivers, waves, and other 
denuding agents effect disintegrations that are determined in 
their amounts and qualities by local circumstances. Acting 
upon a tract of granite, such agents here work scarcely an 



THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 397 

appreciable effect ; there cause exfoliations of the surface, and 
a resulting heap of debris and boulders ; and elsewhere, after 
decomposing the feldspar into a white clay, carry away this 
with the accompanying quartz and mica, and deposit them 
in separate beds, fluviatile and marine. When the exposed 
land consists of several unlike formations, sedimentary and 
igneous, changes proportionably more heterogeneous are 
wrought. The formations being disintegrable in different de- 
grees, there follows an increased irregularity of surface. The 
areas drained by different rivers being differently constituted, 
these rivers carry down to the sea unlike combinations of 
ingredients ; and so sundry new strata of distinct composition 
arise. And here indeed we may see very simply illustrated, 
the truth, that the heterogeneity of the effects increases in a 
geometrical progression, with the heterogeneity of the object 
acted upon. A continent of complex structure, presenting 
many strata irregularly distributed, raised to various levels, 
tilted up at all angles, must, under the same denuding agen- 
cies, give origin to immensely multiplied results : each dis- 
trict must Jbe peculiarly modified ; each river must carry 
down a distinct kind of detritus ; each deposit must be differ- 
ently distributed by the entangled currents, tidal and other, 
which wash the contorted shores ; and every additional com- 
plication of surface must be the cause of more than one ad- 
ditional consequence. But not to dwell on these, let us, 
for the fuller elucidation of this truth in relation to the inor- 
ganic world, consider what would presently follow from some 
extensive cosmical revolution — say the subsidence of Central 
America. The immediate results of the. disturbance would 
themselves be sufficiently complex. Besides the numberless 
dislocations of strata, the ejections of igneous matter, the 
propagation of earthquake vibrations thousands of miles 
around, the loud explosions, and the escape of gases, there 
would be the rush of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to sup- 
ply the vacant space, the subsequent recoil of enormous 
waves, which would traverse both these oceans and produce 






398 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 

myriads of changes along their shores, the corresponding at- 
mospheric waves complicated by the currents surrounding each 
volcanic vent, and the electrical discharges with which such 
disturbances are accompanied. But these temporary effects 
would be insignificant compared with the permanent ones. 
The complex currents of the Atlantic and Pacific would be 
altered in directions and amounts. The distribution of heat 
achieved by these currents would be different from what it is. 
The arrangement of the isothermal lines, not only on the 
neighbouring continents, but even throughout Europe, woidd 
be changed. The tides would flow differently from what 
they do jiow. There would be more or less modification of 
the winds in their periods, strengths, directions, qualities. 
Rain would fall scarcely anywhere at the same times and in 
the same quantities as at present. In short, the meteorolo- 
gical conditions thousands of miles off, on all sides, would be 
more or less revolutionized. In these many changes, each of 
which comprehends countless minor ones, the reader will see 
the immense heterogeneity of the results wrought out by one 
force, when that force expends itself on a previously compli- 
cated area ; and he will readily draw the corollary that from 
the beginning the complication has advanced at an increasing 
rate. 

§ 119. We have next to trace throughout organic evolu- 
tion, this same all-pervading principle. And here, where 
the transformation of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous 
was first observed, the production of many changes by one 
cause is least easy to demonstrate. The development of a seed 
into a plant, or an ovum into an animal, is so gradual ; while 
the forces which determine it are so involved, and at the same 
time so unobtrusive ; that it is difficult to detect the multipli- 
cation of effects which is elsewhere so obvious. Nevertheless, 
by indirect evidence we may establish our proposition ; spite 
of the lack of direct evidence. 

Observe, first, how numerous are the changes which any 



THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 399 

marked stimulus works on an adult organism — a human being, 
for instance. An alarming sound or sight, besides impressions 
on the organs of sense and the nerves, may produce a start, a 
scream, a distortion of the face, a trembling consequent on 
general muscular relaxation, a burst of perspiration, an excited 
action of the heart, a rush of blood to the brain, followed 
possibly by arrest of the heart's action and by syncope ; and 
if the system be feeble, an illness with its long train of 
complicated symptoms may set in. Similarly in cases of 
disease. A minute portion of the small-pox virus introduced 
into the system, will, in a severe case, cause, during the first 
stage, rigors, heat of skin, accelerated pulse, furred tongue, 
loss of appetite, thirst, epigastric uneasiness, vomiting, head- 
ache, pains in the back and limbs, muscular weakness, con- 
vulsions, delirium, &c. ; in the second stage, cutaneous erup- 
tion, itching, tingling, sore throat, swelled fauces, salivation, 
cough, hoarseness, dyspnoea, &c. ; and in the third stage, 
oedematous inflammations, pneumonia, pleurisy, diarrhoea, 
inflammation of the brain, ophthalmia, erysipelas, &c. : each 
of which enumerated symptoms is itself more or less complex. 
Medicines, special foods, better air, might in like manner be 
instanced as producing multiplied results. Now it 

needs only to consider that the many changes thus wrought 
by one force on an adult organism, must be partially paral- 
leled in an embryo -organism, to understand how here also 
the production of many effects by one cause is a source of 
increasing heterogeneity. The external heat and other 
agencies which determine the first complications of the germ, 
will, by acting on these, superinduce further complications ; 
on these still higher and more numerous ones ; and so on 
continually : each organ as it is developed, serving, by its 
actions and reactions on the rest, to initiate new complexities. 
The first pulsations of the fcetal heart must simultaneously 
aid the unfolding of every part. The growth of each tissue, 
by taking from the blood special proportions of elements, 
must modify the constitution of the blood ; and so must 



400 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 

modify the nutrition of all the other tissues. The distributive 
actions, implying as they do a certain waste, necessitate an 
addition to the blood of effete matters, which must influence 
the rest of the system, and perhaps, as some think, initiate 
the formation of excretory organs. The nervous connections 
established among the viscera must further multiply their 
mutual influences. And so with every modification of 
structure — every additional part and every alteration in the 
ratios of parts. Still stronger becomes the proof when 

we call to mind the fact, that the same germ may be evolved 
into different forms according to circumstances. (Thus, dur- 
ing its earlier stages, every embryo is sexlessV-becomes either 
male or female as the balance of forces acting on it deter- 
mines^ Again, it is well-known that the larva of a working- 
bee will develop into a queen-bee, if, before a certain period, 
its food be changed to that on which the larvae of queen-bees 
are fed. Even more remarkable is the case of certain 
entozoa. The ovum of a tape- worm, getting into the intes- 
tine of one animal, unfolds into the form of its parent ; but 
if carried into other parts of the system, or into the intestine 
of some unlike animal, it becomes one of the sac-like creatures, 
called by naturalists Cysticerci, or Ooenuri, or Echinococci 
— creatures so extremely different from the tape-worm 
in aspect and structure, that only after careful investiga- 
tions have they been proved to have the same origin. 
All which instances imply that each advance in embryonic 
complication results from the action of incident forces on the 
complication previously existing. Indeed, the now 

accepted doctrine of epigenesis necessitates the conclusion that 
organic evolution proceeds after this manner. For since it is 
proved that no germ, animal or vegetal, contains the slightest 
rudiment, trace, or indication of the future organism — since 
the microscope has shown us that the first process set up in 
every fertilized germ is a process of repeated spontaneous 
fissions, ending in the production of a mass of cells, not one 
of which exhibits any special character; there seems no 



THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 401 

alternative but to conclude that the partial organization at 
any moment subsisting in a growing embryo, is transformed 
by the agencies acting on it into the succeeding phase of 
organization, and this into the next, until, through ever- 
increasing complexities, the ultimate form is reach- 
ed. Thus, though the subtlety of the forces and the 
slowness of the metamorphosis, prevent us from directly 
tracing the genesis of many changes by one cause, throughout 
the successive stages which every embryo passes through ; 
yet, indirectly, we have strong evidence that this is a source 
of increasing heterogeneity. We have marked how multi- 
tudinous are the effects which a single agency may generate 
in an adult organism; that a like multiplication of effects 
must happen in the unfolding organism, we have inferred 
from .sundry illustrative cases ; further, it has been pointed 
out that the ability which like germs have to originate un- 
like forms, implies that the successive transformations result 
from the new changes superinduced on previous changes ; 
and we have seen that structureless as every germ originally 
is, the development of an organism out of it is otherwise in- 
comprehensible. Doubtless we are still in the dark respect- 
ing those mysterious properties which make the germ, when 
subject to fit influences, undergo the special changes begin- 
ning this series of transformations. All here contended is, 
that given a germ possessing these mysterious properties, the 
evolution of an organism from it depends, in part, on that 
multiplication of effects which we have seen to be a cause of 
evolution in general, so far as we have yet traced it. 

When, leaving the development of single plants and ani- 
mals, we pass to that of the Earth's flora and fauna, the 
course of the argument again becomes clear and simple. 
Though, as before admitted, the fragmentary facts Palaeon- 
tology has accumulated, do not clearly warrant us in saying 
that, in the lapse of geologic time, there have been evolved 
more heterogeneous organisms, and more heterogeneous 
assemblages of organisms ; yet we shall now see that there 



402 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 

must ever have been a tendency towards these results. "We 
shall find that the production of many effects by one cause, 
which, as already shown, has been all along increasing 
the physical heterogeneity of the Earth, has further neces- 
sitated an increasing heterogeneity in its flora and fauna, 
individually and collectively. An illustration will make this 
clear. Suppose that by a series of upheavals, occur- 

ring, as they are now known to do, at long intervals, the East 
Indian Archipelago were to be raised into a continent, and a 
chain of mountains formed along the axis of elevation. By 
the first of these upheavals, the plants and animals inhabit- 
ing Borneo, Sumatra, New Guinea, and the rest, would be 
subjected to slightly-modified sets of conditions. The climate 
in general would be altered in temperature, in humidity, and 
in its periodical variations ; while the local differences would 
be multiplied. These modifications would affect, perhaps 
inappreciably, the entire flora and fauna of the region. The 
change of level would produce additional modifications ; 
varying in different species, and also in different members of 
the same species, according to their distance from the axis of 
elevation. Plants, growing only on the sea-shore in special 
localities, might become extinct. Others, living only in 
swamps of a certain humidity, would, if they survived at all, 
probably undergo visible changes of appearance. While 
more marked alterations would occur in some of the 
plants that spread over the lands newly raised above the 
sea. The animals and insects living on these modified plants, 
would themselves be in some degree modified by change of 
food, as well as by change of climate ; and the modification 
would be more marked where, from the dwindling or disap- 
pearance of one kind of plant, an allied kind was eaten. In 
the lapse of the many generations arising before the next up- 
heaval, the sensible or insensible alterations thus produced in 
each species, would become organized — in all the races that 
survived there would be a more or less complete adaptation 
to the new conditions. The next upheaval would superin- 



THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 403 

duce further organic changes, implying wider divergences 
from the primary forms ; and so repeatedly. Now however 
let it be observed that this revolution would not be a substi- 
tution of a thousand modified species for the thousand 
original species ; but in place of the thousand original species 
there would arise several thousand species, or varieties, or 
changed forms. Each species being distributed over an area 
of some extent, and tending continually to colonize the new 
area exposed, its different members would be subject to dif- 
ferent sets of changes. Plants and animals migrating to- 
wards the equator would not be affected in the same way 
with others migrating from it. Those which spread towards 
the new shores, would undergo changes unlike the changes 
undergone by those which spread into the mountains. Thus, 
each original race of organisms would become the root from 
which diverged several races, differing more or less from it and 
from each other ; and while some of these might subsequently 
disappear, probably more than one would survive in the next 
geologic period : the very dispersion itself increasing the 
chances of survival. Not only would there be certain modi- 
fications thus caused by changes of physical conditions and 
food ; but also in some cases other modifications caused by 
changes of habit. The fauna of each island, peopling, step 
by step, the newly-raised tracts, would eventually come in 
contact with the faunas of other islands ; and some members 
of these other faunas would be unlike any creatures before 
seen. Herbivores meeting with new beasts of prey, would, 
in some cases, be led into modes of defence or escape differ- 
ing from those previously used; and simultaneously the 
beasts of prey would modify their modes of pursuit and 
attack. We know that when circumstances demand it, such 
changes of habit do take place in animals ; and we know 
that if the new habits become the dominant ones, they 
must eventually in some degree alter the organiza- 
tion. Observe now, however, a further consequence. 
There must arise not simply a tendency towards the differen- 



404 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 

tiation of each, race of organisms into several races ; but also 
a tendency to the occasional production of a somewhat higher 
organism. Taken in the mass, these divergent varieties, 
which have been caused by fresh physical conditions and 
habits of life, will exhibit alterations quite indefinite in kind 
and degree ; and alterations that do not necessarily consti- 
tute an advance. Probably in most cases the modified type 
will be not appreciably more heterogeneous than the original 
one. But it must now and then occur, that some division of 
a species, falling into circumstances which give it rather 
more complex experiences, and demand actions somewhat 
more involved, will have certain of its organs further dif- 
ferentiated in proportionately small degrees — will become 
slightly more heterogeneous. Hence, there will from time 
to time arise an increased heterogeneity both of the Earth's 
flora and fauna, and of individual races included in them. 
Omitting detailed explanations, and allowing for the qualifi- 
cations which cannot here be specified, it is sufficiently clear 
that geological mutations have all along tended to complicate 
the forms of life, whether regarded separately or collectively. 
That multiplication of effects which has been a part-cause of 
the transformation of the Earth's crust from the simple into 
the complex, has simultaneously led to a parallel transforma- 
tion of the Life upon its surface.* 

The deduction here drawn from the established truths of 

* Had this paragraph, first published in the Westminster Review in 1857, been 
■written after the appearance of Mr. Darwin's work on The Origin of Species, it 
would doubtless have been otherwise expressed. Eeference would have been 
made to the process of " natural selection," as greatly facilitating the differenti- 
ations described. As it is, however, I prefer to let the passage stand in its origi- 
nal shape : partly because it seems to me that these successive changes of condi- 
tions would produce divergent varieties or species, apart from the influence of 
" natural selection" (though in less numerous ways as well as less rapidly) ; and 
partly because I conceive that in the absence of these successive changes of con- 
ditions, " natural selection " would effect comparatively little. Let me add that 
though these positions are not enunciated in The Origin of Species, yet a mutual 
friend gives me reason to think that Mr. Darwin would coincide in them ; if he 
did not indeed consider them as tacitly implied in his work. 



THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 405 

geology and the general laws of life, gains immensely in weight 
on finding it to be in harmony with an induction drawn from 
direct experience. Just that divergence of many races from 
one race, which we inferred must have been continually oc- 
curring during geologic time, we know to have occurred dur- 
ing the pre -historic and historic periods, in man and domestic 
animals. And just that multiplication of effects which we 
concluded must have been instrumental to the first, we see 
has in a great measure wrought the last. Single causes, as 
famine, pressure of population, war, have periodically led to 
further dispersions of mankind and of dependent creatures : 
each such dispersion initiating new modifications, new varieties 
of type. Whether all the human races be or be not derived 
from one stock, philology makes it clear that whole groups of 
races, now easily distinguishable from each other, were origin- 
ally one race — that the diffusion of one race into different 
climates and conditions of existence has produced many 
altered forms of it. Similarly with domestic animals. Though 
in some cases (as that of dogs) community of origin will per- 
haps be disputed, yet in other cases (as that of the sheep or 
the cattle of our own country) it will not be questioned that 
local differences of climate, food, and treatment, have trans- 
formed one original breed into numerous breeds, now become 
so far distinct as to produce unstable hybrids. Moreover, 
through the complication of effects flowing from single causes, 
we here find, what we before inferred, not only an increase of 
general heterogeneity, but also of special heterogeneity. 
While of the divergent divisions and subdivisions of the hu- 
man race, many have undergone changes not constituting an 
advance ; others have become decidedly more heterogeneous. 
The civilized European departs more widely from the verte- 
brate archetype than does the savage. 

§ 120. A sensation does not expend itself in arousing some 
single state of consciousness ; but the state of consciousness 
aroused is made up of various represented sensations connected 




406 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 

by co- existence, or sequence with the presented sensation. 
And that, in proportion as the grade of intelligence is high, 
the number of ideas suggested is great, may be readily inferred. 
Let us, however, look at the proof that here too, each change 
is the parent of many changes ; and that the multiplication 
increases in proportion as the area affected is complex. 

Were some hitherto unknown bird, driven say by stress of 
weather from the remote north, to make its appearance on 
our shores, it would excite no speculation in the sheep or cat- 
tle amid which it alighted : a perception of it as a creature 
like those constantly flying about, would be the sole inter- 
ruption of that dull current of consciousness which accom- 
panies grazing and rumination. The cow-herd, by whom we 
may suppose the exhausted bird to be presently caught, would 
probably gaze at it with some slight curiosity, as being un- 
like any he had before seen — would note its most conspicuous 
markings, and vaguely ponder on the questions, where it 
came from, and how it came. The village bird-stuffer would 
have suggested to him by the sight of it, sundry forms to 
which it bore a little resemblance ; would receive from it more 
numerous and more specific impressions respecting structure 
and plumage ; would be reminded of various instances of 
birds brought by storms from foreign parts — would tell who 
found them, who stuffed them, who bought them. Suppos- 
ing the unknown bird taken to a naturalist of the old school, 
interested only in externals, (one of those described by the 
late Edward Forbes, as examining animals as though they were 
merely skins filled with straw,) it would excite in him a more 
involved series of mental changes : there would be an elabor- 
ate examination of the feathers, a noting of all their technical 
distinctions, with a reduction of these perceptions to certain 
equivalent written symbols; reasons for referring the new 
form to a particular family, order, and genus would be sought 
out and written down ; communications with the secretary of 
some society, or editor of some journal, would follow ; and 
probably there would be not a few thoughts about the addi- 



THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 407 

tion of the ii to the describer's name, to form the name of the 
species. Lastly, in the mind of a comparative anatomist, such 
a new species, should it happen to have any marked internal 
peculiarity, might produce additional sets of changes — might 
very possibly suggest modified views respecting the relation- 
ships of the division to which it belonged ; or, perhaps, alter 
his conceptions of the homologies and developments of certain 
organs ; and the conclusions drawn might not improbably 
enter as elements into still wider inquiries concerning the 
origin of organic forms. 

From ideas let us turn to emotions. In a young child, a 
father's anger produces little else than vague fear — a disagree- 
able sense of impending evil, taking various shapes of physi- 
cal suffering or deprivation of pleasures. In elder children, 
the same harsh words will arouse additional feelings : some- 
times a sense of shame, of penitence, or of sorrow for hav- 
ing offended ; at other times, a sense of injustice, and a 
consequent anger. In the wife, yet a further range of feel- 
ings may come into existence — perhaps wounded affection, 
perhaps self-pity for ill-usage, perhaps contempt for ground- 
less irritability, perhaps sympathy for some suffering which 
the irritability indicates, perhaps anxiety about an unknown 
misfortune which she thinks has produced it. Nor are we 
without evidence that among adults, the like differences of de- 
velopment are accompanied by like differences in the number 
of emotions that are aroused, in combination or rapid succes- 
sion — the lower natures being characterized by that impul- 
siveness which results from the uncontrolled action of a few 
feelings ; and the higher natures being characterized by the 
simultaneous action of many secondary feelings, modifying 
those first awakened. 

Possibly it will be objected that the illustrations here given, 
are drawn from the functional changes of the nervous system, 
not from its structural changes ; and that what is proved 
among the first, does not necessarily hold among the last. 
This must be admitted. Those, however, who recognize the 



408 



THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 












truth, that the structural changes are the slowly accumulated 
results of the functional changes, will readily draw the corol- 
lary, that a part -cause of the evolution of the nervous system, 
as of other evolution, is this multiplication of effects which 
becomes ever greater as the development becomes higher, 

§ 121. If the advance of Man towards greater heterogene- 
ity in both body and mind, is in part traceable to the produc- 
tion of many effects by one cause, still more clearly may the 
advance of Society towards greater heterogeneity be so ex- 
plained. Consider the growth of an industrial organization. 
When, as must occasionally happen, some individual of a 
tribe displays unusual aptitude for making an article of gen- 
eral use (a weapon, for instance) which was before made by 
each man for himself, there arises a tendency towards the 
differentiation of that individual into a maker of weapons. 
His companions (warriors and hunters all of them) severally 
wish to have the best weapons that can be made ; and are 
therefore certain to offer strong inducements to this skilled 
individual to make weapons for them. He, on the other hand, 
having both an unusual faculty, and an unusual liking, for 
making weapons (the capacity and the desire for any occu- 
pation being commonly associated), is predisposed to fulfil 
these commissions on the offer of adequate rewards : espe- 
cially as his love of distinction is also gratified. This first 
specialization of function, once commenced, tends ever to be- 
come more decided. On the side of the weapon-maker, con- 
tinued practice gives increased skill — increased superiority to 
his products. On the side of his clients, cessation of practice 
entails decreased skill. Thus the influences that determine 
this division of labour grow stronger in both ways : this 
social movement tends ever to become more decided in the 
direction in which it was first set up ; and the incipient 
heterogeneity is, on the average of cases, likely to become 
permanent for that generation, if no longer. Such a 

process, besides differentiating the social mass into two parts, 



THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 409 

the one monopolizing, or almost monopolizing, the perform- 
ance of a certain function, and the other having lost the 
habit, and in some measure the power, of performing that 
function, has a tendency to initiate other differentiations. The 
advance described implies the introduction of barter : the 
maker of weapons has, on each occasion, to be paid in such 
other articles as he agrees to take in exchange. Now he will 
not habitually take in exchange one kind of article, but many 
kinds. He does not want mats only, or skins, or fishing-gear ; 
but he wants all these ; and on each occasion will bargain 
for the particular things he most needs. What follows ? If 
among the members of the tribe there exist any slight differ- 
ences of skill in the manufacture of these various things, as 
there are almost sure to do, the weapon-maker will take from 
each one the thing which that one excels in making : he will 
exchange for mats with him whose mats are superior, and 
will bargain for the fishing- gear of whoever has the best. 
But he who has bartered away his mats or his fishing-gear, 
must make other mats or fishing- gear for himself; and in so 
doing must, in some degree, further develop his aptitude. 
Thus it results that the small specialities of faculty possessed 
by various members of the tribe will tend to grow more de- 
cided. If such transactions are from time to time repeated, 
these specializations may become appreciable. And whether 
or not there ensue distinct differentiations of other individ- 
uals into makers of particular articles, it is clear that incipi- 
ent differentiations take place throughout the tribe : the one 
original cause produces not only the first dual effect, but a 
number of secondary dual effects, like in kind but minor in 
degree. This process, of which traces may be seen 

among groups of school-boys, cannot well produce a lasting 
distribution of functions in an unsettled tribe ; but where 
there grows up a fixed and multiplying community, such 
differentiations become permanent, and increase with each 
generation. An addition to the number of citizens, involv- 
ing a greater demand for every commodity, intensifies the 
19 



410 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 

functional- activity of each, specialized person or class ; and 
this renders the specialization more definite where it al- 
ready exists, and establishes it where it is but nascent. By 
increasing the pressure on the means of subsistence, a larger 
population again augments these results ; since every individ- 
•ual is forced more and more to confine himself to that which 
he can do best, and by which he can gain most. And this 
industrial progress, by aiding future production, opens the 
way for further growth of population, which reacts as be- 
fore. Presently, under the same stimuli, new occu- 
pations arise. Competing workers, severally aiming to pro- 
duce improved articles, occasionally discover better processes 
or better materials. In weapons and cutting- tools, the substi- 
tution of bronze for stone entails on him who first makes it, a 
great increase of demand — so great an increase that he pre- 
sently finds all his time occupied in making the bronze for the 
articles he sells, and is obliged to depute the fashioning of 
these articles to others ; and eventually the making of bronze, 
thus gradually differentiated from a pre-existing occupation, 
becomes an occupation by itself. But now mark the ramified 
changes which follow this change. Bronze soon replaces stone, 
not only in the articles it was first used for, but in many others ; 
and so affects the manufacture of them. Further, it affects the 
processes which such improved utensils subserve, and the re- 
sulting products — modifies buildings, carvings, dress, personal 
decorations. Yet again, it sets going sundry manufactures 
which were before impossible, from lack of a material fit for 
the requisite tools. And all these changes react on the peo- 
ple — increase their manipulative skill, their intelligence, their 
comfort — refine their habits and tastes. 

It is out of the question here to follow through its succes- 
sive complications, this increasing social heterogeneity that 
results from the production of many effects by one cause. 
But leaving the intermediate phases of social development, 
let us take an illustration from its passing phase. To trace 
the effects of steam-power, in its manifold applications to 



THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 411 

mining, navigation, and manufactures, would carry us into 
unmanageable detail. Let us confine ourselves to the latest 
embodiment of steam-power — the locomotive engine. This, 
as the proximate cause of our railway-system, has changed 
the face of the country, the course of trade, and the habits of 
the people. Consider, first, the complicated sets of changes 
that precede the making of every railway — the provisional 
arrangements, the meetings, the registration, the trial- section, 
the parliamentary survey, the lithographed plans, the books 
of reference, the local deposits and notices, the application to 
Parliament, the passing Standing-Orders Committee, the first, 
second, and third readings : each of which brief heads indi- 
cates a multiplicity of transactions, and the further develop- 
ment of sundry occupations, (as those of engineers, surveyors, 
lithographers, parliamentary agents, share-brokers,) and the 
creation of sundry others (as those of traffic-takers, reference- 
takers). Consider, next, the yet more marked changes 
implied in railway construction — the cuttings, embankings, 
tunnellings, diversions of roads ; the building of bridges and 
stations ; the laying down of ballast, sleepers, and rails ; the 
making of engines, tenders, carriages, and wagons : which 
processes, acting upon numerous trades, increase the import- 
ation of timber, the quarrying of stone, the manufacture of 
iron, the mining of coal, the burning of bricks ; institute a 
variety of special manufactures weekly advertised in the 
Railway Times ; and call into being some new classes of 
workers — drivers, stokers, cleaners, plate-layers, &c. &c. 
Then come the changes, more numerous and involved still, 
which railways in action produce on the community at large. 
The organization of every business is more or less modified : 
ease of communication makes it better to do directly what 
was before done by proxy ; agencies are established where 
previously they would not have paid; goods are obtained 
from remote wholesale houses instead of near retail ones ; and 
commodities are used which distance once rendered inacces- 
sible. The rapidity and small cost of carriage, tend to special- 



412 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 

ize more than ever the industries of different districts — to 
confine each manufacture to the parts in which, from local 
advantages, it can be best carried on. Economical distribu- 
tion equalizes prices, and also, on the average, lowers prices : 
thus bringing divers articles within the means of those before 
unable to buy them, and so increasing their comforts and 
improving their habits. At the same time the practice of 
travelling is immensely extended. Classes who before could 
not afford it, take annual trips to the sea ; visit their distant 
relations; make tours; and so we are benefited in body, 
feelings, and intellect. The more prompt transmission of 
letters and of news produces further changes — makes the 
pulse of the nation faster. Yet more, there arises a wide 
dissemination of cheap literature through railway book- stalls, 
and of advertisements in railway carriages : both of them 
aiding ulterior progress. And the innumerable changes here 
briefly indicated are consequent on the invention of the loco- 
motive engine. The social organism has been rendered more 
heterogeneous, in virtue of the many new occupations intro- 
duced, and the many old ones further specialized ; prices in 
all places have been altered ; each trader has, more or less, 
modified his way of doing business ; and every person has 
been affected in his actions, thoughts, emotions. 

The only further fact demanding notice, is, that we here 
see more clearly than ever, that in proportion as the area over 
which any influence extends, becomes heterogeneous, the 
results are in a yet higher degree multiplied in number and 
kind. While among the primitive tribes to whom it was 
first known, caoutchouc caused but few changes, among our- 
selves the changes have been so many and varied that the 
history of them occupies a volume. Upon the small, homo- 
geneous community inhabiting one of the Hebrides, the 
electric telegraph would produce, were it used, scarcely any 
results ; but in England the results it produces are multitu- 
dinous. 

Space permitting, the synthesis might here be pursued 



THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 413 

in relation to all the subtler products of social life. It might 
be shown how, in Science, an advance of one division pre- 
sently advances other divisions — how Astronomy has been 
immensely forwarded by discoveries in Optics, while other 
optical discoveries have initiated Microscopic Anatomy, and 
greatly aided the growth of Physiology — how Chemistry has 
indirectly increased our knowledge of Electricity, Magnetism, 
Biology, Geology — how Electricity has reacted on Chemistry 
and Magnetism, developed our views of Light and Heat, and 
disclosed sundry laws of nervous action. In Literature the 
same truth might be exhibited in the still- multiplying forms 
of periodical publications that have descended from the first 
newspaper, and which have severally acted and reacted on 
other forms of literature and on each other ; or in the bias 
given by each book of power to various subsequent books. 
The influence which a new school of Painting (as that of the 
pre-Raffa elites) exercises on other schools ; the hints which 
all kinds of pictorial art are deriving from Photography ; the 
complex results of new critical doctrines ; might severally be 
dwelt on as displaying the like multiplication of effects. But 
it would needlessly tax the reader's patience to detail, in 
their many ramifications, these various changes : here be- 
come so involved and subtle as to be followed with some 
difficulty. 

§ 122. After the argument which closed the last chapter, a 
parallel one seems here scarcely required. For symmetry's 
sake, however, it will be proper briefly to point out how the 
multiplication of effects, like the instability of the homo- 
geneous, is a corollary from the persistence of force. 

Things which we call different are things which react in 
different ways ; and we can know them as different only by 
the differences in their reactions. "When we distinguish 
bodies as hard and soft, rough and. smooth, we simply mean 
that certain like muscular forces expended on them are 
followed by unlike sets of sensations — unlike reactive forces. 






414 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 

Objects that are classed as red, blue, yellow, &c, are objects 
that decompose light in strongly- contrasted ways ; that is, we 
know contrasts of colour as contrasts in the changes produced 
in a uniform incident force. Manifestly, any two things 
which do not work unequal effects on consciousness, either by 
unequally opposing our own energies, or by impressing our 
senses with unequally modified forms of certain external 
energies, cannot be distinguished by us. Hence the proposi- 
tion that the different parts of any whole must react differ- 
ently on a uniform incident force, and must so reduce it to 
a group of multiform forces, is in essence a truism. A 
further step will reduce this truism to its lowest terms. 

When, from unlikeness between the effects they produce 
on consciousness, we predicate unlikeness between two ob- 
jects, what is our warrant? and what do we mean by the 
unlikeness, objectively considered ? Our warrant is the per- 
sistence of force. Some kind or amount of change has been 
wrought in us by the one, which has not been wrought by 
the other. This change we ascribe to some force exercised by 
the one which the other has not exercised. And we have no 
alternative but to do this, or to assert that the change had 
no antecedent ; which is to deny the persistence of force. 
Whence it is further manifest that what we regard as the 
objective unlikeness is the presence in the one of some force, 
or set of forces, not present in the other — something in the 
kinds or amounts or directions of the constituent forces of the 
one, which those of the other do not parallel. But now if 
things or parts of things which we call different, are those of 
which the constituent forces differ in one or more respects ; 
what must happen to any like forces, or any uniform force, 
falling on them ? Such like forces, or parts of a uniform 
force, must be differently modified. The force which is pre- 
sent in the one and not in the other, must be an element in 
the conflict — must produce its equivalent reaction ; and must 
so affect the total reaction. To say otherwise is to say that 






THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS, 415 

this differential force will produce no effect ; which is to say 
that force is not persistent. 

I need not develop this corollary further. It manifestly 
follows that a uniform force, falling on a uniform aggre- 
gate, must undergo dispersion ; that falling on an aggregate 
made up of unlike parts, it must undergo dispersion from 
each part, as well as qualitative differentiations ; that in pro- 
portion as the parts are unlike, these qualitative differentia- 
tions must be marked ; that in proportion to the number of 
the parts, they must be numerous ; that the secondary forces 
so produced, must undergo further transformations while 
working equivalent transformations in the parts that change 
them ; and similarly with the forces they generate. Thus the 
conclusions that a part- cause of Evolution is the multiplica- 
tion of effects ; and that this increases in geometrical progres- 
sion as the heterogeneity becomes greater ; are not only to be 
established inductively, but are deducible from the deepest 
of all truths 



CHAPTER XV. 

DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 

§ 123. The general interpretation of Evolution is far from 
being completed in the preceding chapters. We must con- 
template its changes under yet another aspect, before we can 
form a definite conception of the process constituted by them. 
Though the laws already set forth, furnish a key to the re- 
arrangement of parts which Evolution exhibits, in so far as 
it is an advance from the uniform to the multiform ; they 
furnish no key to this re- arrangement in so far as it is an 
advance from the indefinite to the definite. On studying the 
actions and re- actions everywhere going on, we have found 
it to follow inevitably from a certain primordial truth, that 
the homogeneous must lapse into the heterogeneous, and that 
the heterogeneous must become more heterogeneous ; but we 
have not discovered why the differently- affected parts of any 
simple whole, become clearly marked off from each other, at 
the same time that they become unlike. Thus far no reason 
has been assigned why there should not ordinarily arise a 
vague chaotic heterogeneity, in place of that orderly hetero- 
geneity displayed in Evolution. It still remains to find out 
the cause of that integration of parts which accompanies 
their differentiation — that gradually- completed segregation 
of like units into a group, distinctly separated from neigh- 
bouring groups which are severally made up of other kinds 
of units. The rationale will be conveniently introduced by a 



DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 417 

few instances in which we may watch this segregative pro- 
cess taking place. 

When towards the end of September, the trees are gaining 
their autumn colours, and we are hoping shortly to see a 
further change increasing still more the beauty of the land- 
scape, we are not uncommonly disappointed by the occur- 
rence of an equinoxial gale. Out of the mixed mass of 
foliage on each branch, the strong current of air carries 
away the decaying and brightly-tinted leaves, but fails to 
detach those which are still green. And while these last, 
frayed and seared by long- continued beatings against each 
other, and the twigs around them, give a sombre colour to 
the woods, the red and yellow and orange leaves are collected 
together in ditches and behind walls and in corners where 
eddies allow them to settle. That is to say, by the action of 
that uniform force which the wind exerts on both kinds, the 
dying leaves are picked out from among their still living com- 
panions and gathered in places by themselves. Again, the 
separation of particles of different sizes, as dust and sand 
from pebbles, may be similarly effected ; as we see on every 
road in March. . And from the days of Homer downwards, 
the power of currents of air, natural and artificial, to part 
from one another units of unlike specific gravities, has 
been habitually utilized in the winnowing of chaff from 
wheat. In every river we see how the mixed ma- 

terials carried down, are separately deposited — how in rapids 
the bottom gives rest to nothing but boulders and pebbles ; 
how where the current is not so strong, sand is let fall ; and 
how, in still places, there is a sediment of mud. This select- 
ive action of moving water, is commonly applied in the arts 
to obtain masses of particles of different degrees of fineness. 
Emery, for example, after being ground, is carried by a slow 
current through successive compartments; in the first of 
which the largest grains subside ; in the second of which 
the grains that reach the bottom before the water has 
escaped, are somewhat smaller; in the third smaller still; 
19* 






418 DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 

until in the last there are deposited only those finest 
particles which fall so slowly through the water, that they 
have not previously been able to reach the bottom. And in 
a way that is different though equally significant, this segre- 
gative effect of water in motion, is exemplified in the carry- 
ing away of soluble from insoluble matters — an application 
of it hourly made in every laboratory. The effects of 

the uniform forces which aerial and aqueous currents exercise, 
are paralleled by those of uniform forces of other orders. Elec- 
tric attraction will separate small bodies from large, or light 
bodies from heavy. By magnetism, grains of iron may be 
selected from among other grains ; as by the Sheffield 
grinder, whose magnetized gauze mask filters out the steel- 
dust which his wheel gives off, from the stone- dust that 
accompanies it. And how the affinity of any agent acting 
differently on the components of a given body, enables us to 
take away some component and leave the rest behind, is 
shown in almost every chemical experiment. 

What now is the general truth here variously presented ? 
How are these several facts and countless similar ones, to be 
expressed in terms that embrace them all ? In each case we 
see in action a force which may be regarded as simple or uni- 
form — fluid motion in a certain direction at a certain velocity ; 
electric or magnetic attraction of a given amount; chemical 
affinity of a particular kind : or rather, in strictness, the act- 
ing force is compounded of one of these and certain other 
uniform forces, as gravitation, etc. In each case we have an 
aggregate made up of unlike units — either atoms of different 
substances combined or intimately mingled, or fragments of 
the same substance of different sizes, or other constituent 
parts that are unlike in their specific gravities, shapes, or 
other attributes. And in each case these unlike units, or 
groups of units, of which the aggregate consists, are, under 
the influence of some resultant force acting indiscrimi- 
nately on them all, separated from each other — segregated 
into minor aggregates, each consisting of units that are 



DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 419 

severally like each other and unlike those of the other minor 
aggregates. Such being the common aspect of these changes, 
let us look for the common interpretation of them. 

In the chapter on " The Instability of the Homogeneous," 
it was shown that a uniform force falling on any aggregate, 
produces unlike modifications in its different parts — turns the 
uniform into the multiform and the multiform into the more 
multiform. The transformation thus wrought, consists of 
either insensible or sensible changes of relative position 
among the units, or of both — either of those molecular re- 
arrangements which we call chemical, or of those larger 
transpositions which are distinguished as mechanical, or of 
the two united. Such portion of the permanently effective 
force as reaches each different part, or differently- conditioned 
part, may be expended in modifying the mutual relations of 
its constituents ; or it may be expended in moving the part 
to another place ; or it may be expended partially in the first 
and partially in the second. Hence, so much of the perma- 
nently effective force as does not work the one kind of effect, 
must work the other kind. It is manifest that if of the 
permanently effective force which falls on some compound 
unit of an aggregate, little, if any, is absorbed in re-arrang- 
ing the ultimate components of such compound unit, much 
or the whole, must show itself in motion of such compound 
unit to some other place in the aggregate j and conversely, 
if little or none of this force is absorbed in generating me- 
chanical transposition, much or the whole must go to pro- 
duce molecular alterations. What now must follow 
from this ? In cases where none or only part of the force 
generates chemical re-distributions, what physical re-distri- 
butions must be generated ? Parts that are similar to each 
other will be similarly acted on by the force ; and will simi- 
larly react on it. Parts that are dissimilar will be dissimi- 
larly acted on by the force ; and will dissimilarly react on 
it. Hence the permanently effective incident force, when 
wholly or partially transformed into mechanical motion 






420 DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 

of the units, will produce like motions in units that are 
alike, and unlike motions in units that are unlike. If 
then, in an aggregate containing two or more orders of mixed 
units, those of the same order will be moved in the same way, 
and in a way that differs from that in which units of other 
orders are moved, the respective orders must segregate. A 
group of like things on which are impressed motions that are 
alike in amount and direction, must be transferred as a group 
to another place, and if they are mingled with some group of 
other things, on which the motions impressed are like each 
other, but unlike those of the first group in amount or di- 
rection or both, these other things must be transferred as a 
group to some other place — the mixed aggregate must under- 
go a simultaneous differentiation and integration. 

In further elucidation of this process, it will be well here 
to set down a few instances in which we may see that, other 
things equal, the definiteness of the separation is in propor- 
tion to the definiteness of the difference between the units. 
Take a handful of any pounded substance, containing frag- 
ments of all sizes ; and let it fall to the ground while a 
gentle breeze is blowing. The large fragments will be 
collected together on the ground almost immediately under 
the hand ; somewhat smaller fragments will be carried a 
little to the leeward ; still smaller ones a little further ; and 
those minute particles which we call dust, will be drifted a 
long way before they reach the earth : that is, the integration 
is indefinite where the difference among the fragments is 
indefinite, though the divergence is greatest where the 
difference is greatest. If, again, the handful be made up of 
quite distinct orders of units — as pebbles, coarse sand, and 
dust — these will, under like conditions, be segregated with 
comparative definiteness : the pebbles will drop almost verti- 
cally ; the sand will fall in an inclined direction, and deposit 
itself within a tolerably circumscribed space beyond the 
pebbles ; while the dust will be blown almost horizontally to 
a great distance. A case in which another kind of force 



DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 421 

comes into play, will still better illustrate this truth. 
Through a mixed aggregate of soluble and insoluble sub- 
stances, let water slowly percolate. There will in the first 
place be a distinct parting of the substances that are the most 
widely contrasted in their relations to the acting forces : the 
soluble will be carried away ; the insoluble will remain be- 
hind. Further, some separation, though a less definite one, 
will be effected among the soluble substances ; since the first 
part of the current will remove the most soluble substances in 
the largest amounts, and after these have been all dissolved, 
the current will still continue to bring out the remaining less 
soluble substances. Even the undissolved matters will have 
simultaneously undergone a certain segregation ; for the 
percolating fluid will carry down the minute fragments from 
among the large ones, and will deposit those of small specific 
gravity in one place, and those of great specific gravity in 
another. To complete the elucidation we must glance 

at the obverse fact ; namely, that mixed units which differ but 
slightly, are moved in but slightly-different ways by incident 
forces, and can therefore be separated only by such adjust- 
ments of the incident forces as allow slight differences to be- 
come appreciable factors in the result. This truth is made 
manifest by antithesis in the instances just given ; but it may 
be made much more manifest by a few such instances as 
those which chemical analysis supplies in abundance. The 
parting of alcohol from water by distillation is a good one. 
Here we have atoms consisting of oxygen and hydrogen, 
mingled with atoms consisting of oxygen, hydrogen, and 
carbon. The two orders of atoms have a considerable 
similarity of nature : they similarly maintain a fluid form at 
ordinary temperatures; they similarly become gaseous more 
and more rapidly as the temperature is raised ; and they boil 
at points not very far apart. Now this comparative likeness 
of the atoms is accompanied by difficulty in segregating 
them. If the mixed fluid is unduly heated, much water dis- 
tils over with the alcohol : it is only within a narrow range 






422 DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 

of temperature, that the one set of atoms are driven off rather 
than the others ; and even then not a few of the others ac- 
company them. The most interesting and instructive 
example, however, is furnished by certain phenomena of 
crystallization. When several salts that have little analogy 
of constitution, are dissolved in the same body of water, they 
are separated without much trouble, by crystallization : their 
respective units moved towards each other, as physicists sup- 
pose, by polar forces, segregate into crystals of their respect- 
ive kinds. The crystals of each salt do, indeed, usually con- 
tain certain small amounts of the other salts present in the 
solution — especially when the crystallization has been rapid ; 
but from these other salts they are severally freed by repeated 
re-solutions and crystallizations. Mark now, however, that the 
reverse is the case when the salts contained in the same body 
| of water are chemically homologous. The nitrates of baryta 
and lead, or the sulphates of zinc, soda, and magnesia, unite 
in the same crystals ; nor will they crystallize separately if 
these crystals be dissolved afresh, and afresh crystallized, 
even with great care. On seeking the cause of this anomaly, 
chemists found that such salts were isomorphous — that their 
atoms, though not chemically identical, were identical in the 
proportions of acid, base, and water, composing them, and in 
their crystalline forms : whence it was inferred that their 
atoms are nearly alike in structure. Thus is clearly illustrated 
the truth, that units of unlike kinds are differentiated and 
integrated with a readiness proportionate to the degree of 
their unlikeness. In the first case we see that being dis- 
similar in their forms, but similar in so far as they are 
soluble in water of a certain temperature, the atoms segre- 
gate, though imperfectly. In the second case we see that the 
atoms, having not only the likeness implied by solubility in 
the same menstruum, but also a great likeness of structure, 
do not segregate — are differentiated and integrated only 
under quite special conditions, and then very incompletely. 
That is, the incident force of mutual polarity impresses unlike 



DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 423 

motions on the mixed units in proportion as they are unlike ; 
and therefore, in proportion as they are unlike, tends to de- 
posit them in separate places. 

There is a converse cause of segregation, which it is need- 
less here to treat of with equal fulness. If different units 
acted on by the same force, must be differently moved ; so, 
too, must units of the same kind be differently moved by 
different forces. Supposing some group of units forming part 
of a homogeneous aggregate, are unitedly exposed to a force 
that is unlike in amount or direction to the force acting on 
the rest of the aggregate ; then this group of units will 
separate from the rest, provided that, of the force so acting 
on it, there remains any portion not dissipated in molecular 
vibrations, nor absorbed in producing molecular re- arrange- 
ments. After all that has been said above, this proposition 
needs no defence. 

Before ending our preliminary , exposition, a comple- 
mentary truth must be specified ; namely, that mixed forces 
are segregated by the reaction of uniform matters, just as 
mixed matters are segregated by the action of uniform 
forces. Of this truth a complete and sufficient illustration 
is furnished by the dispersion of refracted light. A beam 
of light, made up of ethereal undulations of different orders, 
is not uniformly deflected by a homogeneous refracting 
body ; but the different orders of undulations it contains, are 
deflected at different angles : the result being that these 
different orders of undulations are separated and integrated, 
and so produce what we know as the colours of the spectrum. 
A segregation of another kind occurs when rays of light 
traverse an obstructing medium. Those rays which consist 
of comparatively short undulations, are absorbed before those 
which consist of comparatively long ones ; and the red rajs f 
which consist of the longest undulations, alone penetrate 
when the obstruction is very great. How, conversely, there 
is produced a separation of like forces by the reaction of un- 
like matters, is also made manifest by the phenomena of 









424 DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 

refraction : since adjacent and parallel beams of light, fall- 
ing on, and passing through, unlike substances, are made to 
diverge. 

§ 124. On the assumption of their nebular origin, stars and 
planets exemplify that cause of material integration last 
assigned — the action of unlike forces on like units. 

In a preceding chapter (§ 110) we saw that if matter 
ever existed in a diffused form, it could not continue uni- 
formly distributed, but must break up into masses. It was 
shown that in the absence of a perfect balance of mutual at- 
tractions among atoms dispersed through unlimited space, 
there must arise breeches of continuity throughout the ag- 
gregate formed by them, and a concentration of it towards 
centres of dominant attraction. Where any such breech of 
continuity occurs, and the atoms that were before adjacent 
separate from each other; they do so in consequence of a 
difference in the forces to which they are respectively sub- 
ject. The atoms on the one side of the breech are exposed 
to a certain surplus attraction in the direction in which they 
begin to move ; and those on the other to a surplus attrac- 
tion in the opposite direction. That is, the adjacent groups 
of like units ar«?€xposed to unlike resultant forces ; and ac- 
cordingly separate and integrate. 

The formation and detachment of a nebulous ring, illus- 
trates the same general principle. To conclude, as Laplace 
did, that the equatorial portion of a rotating nebulous 
spheroid, will, during concentration, acquire a centrifugal 
force sufficient to prevent it from following the rest of the 
contracting mass, is to conclude that such portions will 
remain behind as are in common subject to a certain differ- 
ential force. The line of division between the ring and 
the spheroid, must be a line inside *of which the aggregative 
force is greater than the force resisting aggregation; and 
outside of which the force resisting aggregation is greater 
than the aggregative force. Hence the alleged process 



DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 425 

conforms to the law that among like units, separation and 
integration is produced by the action of unlike forces. 

Astronomical phenomena do not furnish any other than 
these hypothetical examples. In its present comparatively 
settled condition, the Solar System exhibits no direct evi- 
dence of progressing integration : unless indeed under the 
insignificant form of the union of meteoric masses with the 
Earth, and, occasionally perhaps, of cometary matter with 
the Sun. 

§ 125. Those geologic changes usually classed as aqueous, 
display under numerous forms the segregation of unlike 
units by a uniform incident force. On sea- shores, the waves 
are ever sorting- out and separating the mixed materials 
against which they break. From each mass of fallen cliff, 
the rising and ebbing tide carries away all those particles* 
which are so small as to remain Jong suspended in the 
water ; and, at some distance from shore, deposits them in 
the shape of fine sediment. Large particles, sinking with 
comparative rapidity, are accumulated into beds of sand 
near low water-mark. The coarse grit and small pebbles 
collect together on the incline up which the breakers rush. 
And on the top lie the larger stones and^Jboulders. Still 
more specific segregations may occasionally be observed. 
Flat pebbles, produced by the breaking down of laminated 
rock, are sometimes separately collected in one part of a 
shingle bank. On this shore the deposit is wholly of mud ; 
on that it is wholly of sand. Here we find a sheltered cove 
filled with small pebbles almost of one size ; and there, in a 
curved bay one end of which is more exposed than the other, 
we see a progressive increase in the massiveness of the stones 
as we walk from the less exposed to the more exposed end. 
Indeed, our sedimentary strata form one vast series of illus- 
trations of the alleged law. Trace the history of each de- 
posit, and we are quickly led down to the fact, that mixed 
fragments of matter, differing in their sizes or weights, are, 



426 



DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 





when exposed to the momentum, and friction of water, joined 
with the attraction of the Earth, selected from each other, 
and united into groups of comparatively like fragments. 
We see that, other things equal, the separation is definite in 
proportion as the differences of the units are marked; and 
that, under the action of the same aggregate of forces, the 
most widely unlike units are most widely removed from each 
other. 

Among igneous changes we do not find so many examples 
of the process described. "When specifying the conditions 
to Evolution, it was pointed out (§ 104) that molecular 
vibration exceeding a certain intensity, does not permit those 
integrations which result from the action of minor differ- 
ential forces. Nevertheless, geological phenomena of this 
order are not barren of illustrations. Where the mixed 
♦ matters composing the Earth's crust have been raised to a 
very high temperature, segregation habitually takes place 
as the temperature diminishes. Sundry of the substances 
that escape in a gaseous form from volcanoes, sublime into 
crystals on coming against cool surfaces ; and solidifying, as 
these substances do, at different temperatures, they are de- 
posited at different parts of the crevices through which they 
are emitted together. The best illustration, however, is 
furnished by the changes that occur during the slow cooling 
of igneous rock. When, through one of the fractures from 
time to time made in the solid shell which forms the Earth's 
crust, a portion of the molten nucleus is extruded ; and when 
this is cooled with comparative rapidity, through free radi- 
ation and contact with cold masses ; it forms a substance 
known as trap or basalt — a substance that is uniform in 
texture, though made up of various ingredients. But when, 
not escaping through the superficial strata, such a portion of 
the molten nucleus is slowly cooled, it becomes what we 
know as granite : the mingled particles of quartz, feldspar, 
and mica, being kept for a long time in a fluid and semi- 
fluid state — a state of comparative mobility — undergo those 



DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 427 

changes of position which the forces impressed on them by 
their fellow units necessitate. Having time in which to 
generate the requisite motions of the atoms, the differential 
forces arising from mutual polarity, segregate the quartz, 
feldspar, and mica, into crystals. How completely this is de- 
pendent on the long- continued agitation of the mixed par- 
ticles, and consequent long -continued mobility by small dif- 
ferential forces, is proved by the fact that in granite dykes, 
the crystals in the centre of the mass, where the fluidity or 
semi- fluidity continued for a longer time, are much larger 
than those at the sides, where contact with the neighbour- 
ing rock caused more rapid cooling and solidification. 

§ 126. The actions going on throughout an organism are so 
involved and subtle, that we cannot expect to identify the par- 
ticular forces by which particular integrations are effected. 
Among the few instances admitting of tolerably definite in- 
terpretation, the best are those in which mechanical pressures 
and tensions are the agencies at work. We shall discover 
several on studying the bony frame of the higher animals. 

The vertebral column of a man, is subject, as a whole, to 
certain general strains — the weight of the body, together 
with the reactions involved by all considerable muscular 
efforts ; and in conformity with this, it has a certain general 
integration. At the same time, being exposed to different 
forces in the course of those lateral bendings which the 
movements necessitate, its parts retain a certain separateness. 
And if we trace up the development of the vertebral column 
from its primitive form of a cartilaginous cord in the lowest 
fishes, we see that, throughout, it maintains an integration 
corresponding to the unity of the incident forces, joined with 
a division into segments corresponding to the variety of 
the incident forces. Each segment, considered apart, 

exemplifies the truth more simply.^ A vertebra is not a single 
bone, but consists of a central mass with sundry append- 
ages or processes; and in rudimentary types of vertebra, 



428 DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 

these appendages are quite separate from the central mass, 
and, indeed, exist before it makes its appearance. But these 
several independent bones, constituting a primitive spinal 
segment, are subject to a certain aggregate of forces 
which agree more than they differ : as the fulcrum to 
a group of muscles habitually acting together, they per- 
petually undergo certain reactions in common. And ac- 
cordingly, we see that in the course of development they 
gradually coalesce. Still clearer is the illustration 

furnished by spinal segments that become fused together 
where they are together exposed to some predominant strain. 
The sacrum consists of a group of vertebrae firmly united. 
In the ostrich and its congeners there are from seventeen to 
twenty sacral vertebrae ; and besides being confluent with each 
other, these are confluent with the iliac bones, which run on 
each side of them. If now we assume these vertebrae to have 
been originally separate, as they still are in the embryo bird ; 
and if we consider the mechanical conditions to which they 
must in such case have been exposed ; we shall see that their 
union results in the alleged way. For through these vertebrae 
the entire weight of the body is transferred to the legs : the 
legs support the pelvic arch ; the pelvic arch supports the 
sacrum ; and to the sacrum is articulated the rest of the 
spine, with all the limbs and organs attached to it. Hence, 
if separate, the sacral vertebrae must be held firmly together 
by strongly-contracted muscles ; and must, by implication, be 
prevented from partaking in those lateral movements which 
the other vertebrae undergo — they must be subject to a com- 
mon strain, while they are preserved from strains which 
would affect them differently; and so they fulfil the condi- 
tions under which integration occurs. But the cases 
in which cause and effect are brought into the most obvious 
relation, are supplied by the limbs. The metacarpal bones 
(those which in man support the palm of the hand) are separ- 
ate from each other in the majority of mammalia : the separ- 
ate actions of the toes entailing on them slight amounts of 



DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 429 

separate movements. This is not so however in the ox-tribe 
and the horse-tribe. In the ox-tribe, only the middle meta- 
carpals (third and fourth) are developed ; and these, attain- 
ing massive proportions, coalesce to form the cannon bone. 
In the horse-tribe, the integration is what we may distin- 
guish as indirect : the second and fourth metacarpals are 
present only as rudiments united to the sides of the third, 
while the third is immensely developed ; thus forming a 
cannon bone which differs from that of the ox in being a 
single cylinder, instead of two cylinders fused together. 
The metatarsus in these quadrupeds exhibits parallel 
changes. Now each of these metamorphoses occurs where 
the different bones grouped together have no longer any 
different functions, but retain only a common function. The 
feet of oxen and horses are used solely for locomotion — are 
not put like those of unguiculate mammals to purposes 
which involve some relative movements of the metacarpals. 
Thus there directly or indirectly results a single mass of bone 
where the incident force is single. And for the inference 
that these facts have a causal connexion, we find confirma- 
tion throughout the entire class of birds ; in the wings 
and legs of which, like integrations are found under like 
conditions. While this sheet is passing through the 

press, a fact illustrating this general truth in a yet more 
remarkable manner, has been mentioned to me by Prof. 
Huxley ; who kindly allows me to make use of it while still 
unpublished by him. The Gli/ptodon, an extinct mammal 
found fossilized in South America, has long been known as a 
large uncouth creature allied to the Armadillo, but having a 
massive dermal armour consisting of polygonal plates closely 
fitted together so as to make a vast box, inclosing the body 
in such way as effectually to prevent it from being bent, 
laterally or vertically, in the slightest degree. This bony 
box, which must have weighed several hundred- weight, was 
supported on the spinous processes of the vertebrae, and on 
the adjacent bones of the pelvic and thoracic arches. And 






430 DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 

the significant fact now to be noted, is, that here, where the 
trunk vertebrae were together exposed to the pressure of this 
heavy dermal armour, at the same time that, by its rigidity, 
they were preserved from all relative movements, the entire 
series of them were united into one solid, continuous bone. 

The formation and maintenance of a species, considered 
as an assemblage of similar organisms, is interpretable in 
an analogous way. "We have already seen that in so far as 
the members of a species are subject to different sets of inci- 
dent forces, they are differentiated, or divided into varieties. 
And here it remains to add that in so far as they are subject 
to like sets of incident forces, they are integrated, or reduced 
to, and kept in, the state of a uniform aggregate. For by the 
process of "natural selection," there is a continual purifica- 
tion of each species from those individuals which depart 
from the common type in ways that unfit them for the con- 
ditions of their existence. Consequently, there is a continual 
leaving behind of those individuals which are in all respects 
fit for the conditions of their existence ; and are therefore 
very nearly alike. The circumstances to which any species 
is exposed, being, as we before saw, an involved combination 
of incident forces ; and the members of the species having 
mixed with them some that differ more than usual from the 
average structure required for meeting these forces ; it re- 
sults that these forces are constantly separating such diver- 
gent individuals from the rest, and so preserving the uni- 
formity of the rest — keeping up its integrity as a species. 
Just as the changing autumn leaves are picked out by the 
wind from among the green ones around them, or just as, 
to use Prof. Huxley's simile, the smaller fragments pass 
through the sieve while the larger are kept back ; so, the 
uniform incidence of external forces affects the members of a 
group of organisms similarly in proportion as they are similar, 
and differently in proportion as they are different ; and thus is 
ever segregating the like by parting the unlike from them. 
Whether these separated members are killed off, as mostly 



DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 431 

happens, or whether, as otherwise happens, they survive and 
multiply into a distinct variety, in consequence of their 
fitness to certain partially unlike conditions, matters not to 
the argument. The one case conforms to the law, that the 
unlike units of an aggregate are differentiated and inte- 
grated when uniformly subject to the same incident forces ; 
and the other to the converse law, that the like units of an 
aggregate are differentiated and integrated when subject to 
different incident forces. And on consulting Mr. Darwin's 
remarks on divergence of character, it will be seen that the 
segregations thus caused tend ever to become more definite. 

§ 127. Mental evolution under one of its leading aspects, 
we found to consist in the formation of groups of like ob- 
jects and like relations — a differentiation of the various 
things originally confounded together in one assemblage, 
and an integration of each separate order of things into a 
separate group (§ 113). Here it remains to point out that 
while unlikeness in the incident forces is the cause of such 
differentiations, likeness in the incident forces is the cause of 
such integrations. For what is the process through which 
classifications are established ? At first, in common with 
the uninitiated, the botanist recognizes only such conven- 
tional divisions as those which agriculture has established — 
distinguishes a few vegetables and cereals, and groups the 
rest together into the one miscellaneous aggregate of wild 
plants. How do these wild plants become grouped in his mind 
into orders, genera, and species? Each plant he examines 
yields him a certain complex impression. Every now and 
then he picks up a plant like one before seen ; and the re- 
cognition of it is the production in him of a like connected 
group of sensations, by a like connected group of attributes. 
That is to say, there is produced throughout the nerves con- 
cerned, a combined set of changes, similar to a combined set 
of changes before produced. Considered analytically, each 
such combined set of changes is a combined set of molecular 



432 DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 

modifications wrought in the affected part of the organism. 
On every repetition of the impression, a like combined set of 
molecular modifications is superposed on the previous ones, 
and makes them greater : thus generating an internal idea 
corresponding to these similar external objects. Meanwhile, 
another kind of plant produces in the brain of the botanist 
another set of combined changes or molecular modifications 
— a set which does not agree with and deepen the one we 
have been considering, but disagrees with it ; and by repeti- 
tion of such there is generated a different idea_ answering to 
a different species. What now is the nature of this 

process expressed in general terms ? On the one hand there 
are the like and unlike things from* which severally emanate 
the groups of forces by which we perceive them. On the 
other hand, there are the organs of sense and percipient 
centres, through which, in the course of observation, these 
groups of forces pass. In passing through these organs of 
sense and percipient centres, the like groups of forces are se- 
gregated, or separated from the unlike groups of forces ; and 
each such differentiated and integrated series of groups of 
forces, answering to an external genus or species, constitutes 
a state of consciousness which we call our idea of the genus 
or species. "We before saw that as well as a separation of 
mixed matters by the same force, there is a separation of 
mixed forces by the same matter ; and here we may further 
see that the unlike forces so separated, work unlike struct- 
ural changes in the aggregate that separates them — struct- 
ural changes each of which thus represents, and is equivalent 
to, the integrated series of motions that has produced it. 

By a parallel process, the connexions of co-existence and 
sequence among impressions, become differentiated and in- 
tegrated simultaneously with the impressions themselves. 
When two phenomena that have been experienced in a 
given order, are repeated in the same order, those nerves 
which before were affected by the transition are again af- 
fected ; and such molecular modification as they received 



DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 433 

from the first motion propagated through them, is increased 
by this second motion along the same route. Each such mo- 
tion works a structural alteration, which, in conformity with 
the general law set forth in Chapter X., involves a diminu- 
tion of the resistance to all such motions that afterwards 
occur. The integration of these successive motions (or more 
strictly, the permanently effective portions of them expended 
in overcoming resistance) thus becomes the cause of, and the 
measure of, the mental connexion between the impressions 
which the phenomena produce. Meanwhile, phenomena that 
are recognized as different from these, being phenomena that 
therefore affect different nervous elements, will have their 
connexions severally represented by motions along other 
routes ; and along each of these other routes, the nervous dis- 
charges will severally take place with a readiness proportion- 
ate to the frequency with which experience repeats the con- 
nexion of phenomena. The classification of relations must 
hence go on pari passu with the classification of the related 
things. In common with the mixed sensations received 
from the external world, the mixed relations it presents, 
cannot be impressed on the organism without more or less 
segregation of them resulting. And through this continu- 
ous differentiation and integration of changes or motions, 
which constitutes nervous function, there is gradually 
wrought that differentiation and integration of matter, 
which constitutes nervous structure. 

§ 128. In social evolution, the collecting together of the 
like and the separation of the unlike, by incident forces, is 
primarily displayed in the same manner as we saw it to be 
among groups of inferior creatures. The human races tend 
to differentiate and integrate, as do races of other living 
forms. Of the forces which effect and maintain the 

segregations of mankind, may first be named those external 
ones which we class as physical conditions. The climate and 
food that are favourable to an indigenous people, are more or 
20 



434 DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 

less detrimental to a people of different bodily constitution, 
coming from a remote part of the Earth. In tropical re- 
gions the northern races cannot permanently exist : if not 
killed off in the first generation, they are so in the second ; 
and, as in India, can maintain their footing only by the 
artificial process of continuous immigration and emigration. 
That is to say, the external forces acting equally on the in- 
habitants of a given locality, tend to expel all who are not 
of a certain type ; and so to keep up the integration of those 
who are of that type. Though elsewhere, as among Euro- 
pean nations, we see a certain amount of permanent inter- 
mixture, otherwise brought about, we still see that this takes 
place between races of not very different types, that are 
naturalized to not very different conditions. The 

other forces conspiring to produce these national integra- 
tions, are those mental ones which show themselves in the 
affinities of men for others like themselves. Emigrants 
usually desire to get back among their own people ; and 
where their desire does not take effect, it is only because the 
restraining ties are too great. Units of one society who 
are obliged to reside in another, very generally form 
colonies in the midst of that other — small societies of their 
own. Eaces which have been artificially severed, show 
strong tendencies to re-unite. Now though these integra- 
tions that result from the mutual aflinities of kindred men, 
do not seem interpretable as illustrations of the general 
principle above enunciated, they really are thus interpret- 
able. When treating of the direction of motion (§ 91), 
it was shown that the actions performed by men for the 
satisfaction of their wants, were always motions along lines 
of least resistance. The feelings characterizing a member 
of a given race, are feelings which get complete satisfaction 
only among other members of that race — a satisfaction 
partly derived from sympathy with those having like feel- 
ings, but mainly derived from the adapted social conditions 
which grow up where such feelings prevail. When, there- 



DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 435 

fore, a citizen of any nation is, as we see, attracted towards 
others of his nation, the rationale is, that certain agencies 
which we call desires, move him in the direction of least 
resistance. Human motions, like all other motions, being 
determined by the distribution of forces, it follows that 
such integrations of races as are not produced by incident 
external forces, are produced by forces which the units of 
the races exercise on each other. 

During the development of each society, we see analogous 
segregations caused in analogous ways. A few of them re- 
sult from minor natural affinities ; but those most important 
ones which constitute political and industrial organization, 
result from the union of men in whom similarities have been 
produced by education — using education in its widest sense, 
as comprehending all processes by which citizens are mould- 
ed to special functions. Men brought up to bodily labour, 
are men who have had wrought in them a certain likeness — a 
likeness which, in respect of their powers of action, obscures 
and subordinates their natural differences. Those trained to 
brain-work, have acquired a certain other community of 
character which makes them, as social units, more like each 
other than like those trained to manual occupations. And 
there arise class-integrations answering to these super- 
induced likenesses. Much more definite integrations take 
place among the much more definitely assimilated members 
of any class who are brought up to the same calling. Even 
where the necessities of their work forbid concentration in one 
locality, as among artizans happens with masons and brick- 
layers, and among traders happens with the retail distribut- 
ors, and among professionals happens with the medical 
men ; there are not wanting Operative Builders Unions, and 
Grocers Societies, and Medical Associations, to show that 
these artificially-assimilated citizens become integrated as 
much as the conditions permit. And where, as among the 
manufacturing classes, the functions discharged do not re- 
quire the dispersion of the citizens thus artificially assimi- 



436 DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 

lated, there is a progressive aggregation of them in special 
localities ; and a consequent increase in the definiteness of 
the industrial divisions. If now we seek the causes 

of these integrations, considered as results of force and mo- 
tion, we find ourselves brought to the same general principle 
as before. This likeness generated in any class or sub- 
class by training, is an aptitude acquired by its members 
for satisfying their wants in like ways. That is, the 
occupation to which each man has been brought up, has be- 
come to him, in common with those similarly brought up, a 
line of least resistance. Hence under that pressure which 
determines all men to activity, these similarly-modified 
social units are similarly affected, and tend to take similar 
courses. If then there be any locality which, either by its 
physical peculiarities or by peculiarities wrought on it 
during social evolution, is rendered a place where a certain 
kind of industrial action meets with less resistance than else- 
where ; it follows from the law of direction of motion that 
those social units who have been moulded to this kind of 
industrial action, will move towards this place, or become 
integrated there. If, for instance, the proximity of coal and 
iron mines to a navigable river, gives to Glasgow a certain 
advantage in the building of iron ships — if the total labour 
required to produce the same vessel, and get its equivalent 
in food and clothing, is less there than elsewhere; a con- 
centration of iron- ship builders is produced at Glasgow: 
either by keeping there the population born to iron-ship 
building ; or by immigration of those elsewhere engaged in 
it ; or by both — a concentration that would be still more 
marked did not other districts offer counter-balancing facili- 
ties. The principle equally holds where the occupation is 
mercantile instead of manufacturing. Stock-brokers cluster 
together in the city, because the amount of effort to be 
severally gone through by them in discharging their func- 
tions, and obtaining their profits, is less there than in other 
localities. A place of exchange having once been estab- 
lished, becomes a place where the resistance to be overcome 



DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 437 

by each is less than elsewhere ; and the pursuit of the course 
"of least resistance by each, involves their aggregation around 
this place. 

Of course, with units so complicated as those which consti- 
tute a society, and with forces so involved as those which 
move them, the resulting differentiations and integrations 
must be far more entangled, or far less definite, than those we 
have hitherto considered. But though there may be pointed 
out many anomalies which at first sight seem inconsistent 
with the alleged law, a closer study shows that they are but 
subtler illustrations of it. For men's likenesses being of 
various kinds, lead to various order of integration. There 
are likenesses of disposition, likenesses of taste, likenesses 
produced by intellectual culture, likenesses that result from 
class-training, likenesses of political feeling; and it needs 
but to glance round at the caste- divisions, the associations 
for philanthropic, scientific, and artistic purposes, the reli- 
gious parties and social cliques ; to see that some species of 
likeness among the component members of each body 
determines their union. Now these different integrations, 
by traversing each other, and often by their indirect antagon- 
ism, more or less obscure each other ; and prevent any one 
kind of integration from becoming complete. Hence the 
anomalies referred to. But if this cause of incompleteness 
be duly borne in mind, social segregations will be seen to 
conform entirely to the same principle as all other segrega- 
tions. Analysis will show that either by external incident 
forces, or by what we may in a sense regard as mutual 
polarity, there are ever being produced in society integra- 
tions of those units which have either a natural likeness or a 
likeness generated by training. 

§ 129. Can the general truth thus variously illustrated be 
deduced from the persistence of force, in common with fore- 
going ones? Probably the exposition at the beginning of 
the chapter will have led most readers to conclude that^it 
can be so deduced. 



438 DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 

The abstract propositions involved are these : — First, that 
like units, subject to a uniform force capable of producing 
motion in them, will be moved to like degrees in the same 
direction. Second, that like units if exposed to unlike forces 
capable of producing motion in them, will be differently 
moved — moved either in different directions or to different 
degrees in the same direction. Third, that unlike units if 
acted on by a uniform force capable of producing motion in 
them, will be differently moved — moved either in different 
directions or to different degrees in the same direction. 
Fourth, that the incident forces themselves must be affected 
in analogous ways : like forces falling on like units must be 
similarly modified by the conflict ; unlike forces falling on 
like units must be dissimilarly modified ; and like forces fall- 
ing on unlike units must be dissimilarly modified. These 
propositions admit of reduction to a still more abstract form. 
They all of them amount to this : — that in the actions and 
reactions of force and matter, an unlikeness in either of 
the factors necessitates an unlikeness in the effects ; and that 
in the absence of unlikeness in either of the factors the 
effects must be alike. 

When thus generalized, the immediate dependence of these 
propositions on the persistence of force, becomes obvious. 
Any two forces that are not alike, are forces which differ 
either in their amounts or directions or both ; and by what 
mathematicians call the resolution of forces, it may be proved 
that this difference is constituted by the presence in the one 
of some force not present in the other. Similarly, any two 
units or portions of matter which are unlike in size, weight, 
form, or other attribute, can be known by us as unlike only 
through some unlikeness in the forces they impress on our 
conciousness ; and hence this unlikeness also, is constituted by 
the presence in the one of some force or forces not present in 
the other. Such being the common nature of these unlike- 
nesses, what is the inevitable corollary ? Any unlikeness in 
the incident forces, where the things acted on are alike, must 
generate a difference between the effects; since otherwise, 



DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION. 439 

the differential force produces no effect, and force is not per- 
sistent. Any unlikeness in the things acted on, where the 
incident forces are alike, must generate a difference between 
the effects ; since otherwise, the differential force whereby 
these things are made unlike, produces no effect, and force is 
not persistent. While, conversely, if the forces acting and 
the things acted on, are alike, the effects must be alike ; 
since otherwise, a differential effect can be produced without 
a differential cause, and force is not persistent. 

Thus these general truths being necessary implications of 
the persistence of force, all the re-distributions above traced 
out as characterizing Evolution in its various phases, are also 
implications of the persistence of force. Such portions of 
the permanently effective forces acting on any aggregate, as 
produce sensible motions in its parts, cannot but work the 
segregations which we see take place. If of the mixed units 
making up such aggregate, those of the same kind have like 
motions impressed on them by a uniform force, while units of 
another kind are moved by this uniform force in ways more 
or less unlike the ways in which those of the first kind are 
moved, the two kinds must separate and integrate. If the 
units are alike and the forces unlike, a division of the differ- 
ently affected units is equally necessitated. Thus there in- 
evitably arises the demarcated grouping which we every- 
where see. By virtue of this segregation that grows ever more 
decided while there remains any possibility of increasing it, 
the change from uniformity to multiformity is accompanied 
by a change from indistinctness in the relations of parts to 
distinctness in the relations of parts. As we before saw that 
the transformation of the homogeneous into the heterogene- 
ous is inferrable from that ultimate truth which transcends 
proof ; so we here see, that from this same truth is inferrable 
the transformation of an indefinite homogeneity into a defi- 
nite heterogeneity. 






CHAPTER XYI. 

EQUILIBKATION. 

§ 130. And now towards what do these changes tend? 
Will they go on for ever ? or will there be an end to them ? 
Can things increase in heterogeneity through all future time ? 
or must there be a degree which the differentiation and in- 
tegration of Matter and Motion cannot pass ? Is it possible 
for this universal metamorphosis to proceed in the same gene- 
ral course indefinitely ? or does it work towards some ulti- 
mate state, admitting no further modification of like kind ? 
The last of these alternative conclusions is that to which we 
are inevitably driven. Whether we watch concrete processes, 
or whether we consider the question in the abstract, we are 
alike taught that Evolution has an impassable limit. . 

The re- distributions of matter that go on around us, are 
ever being brought to conclusions by the dissipation of the 
motions which effect them. The rolling stone parts with 
portions of its momentum to the things it strikes, and finally 
comes to rest ; as do also, in like manner, the various things 
it has struck. Descending from the clouds and trickling 
over the Earth's surface till it gathers into brooks and rivers, 
water, still running towards a lower level, is at last arrested 
by the resistance of other water that has reached the lowest 
level. In the lake or sea thus formed, every agitation raised 
by a wind or the immersion of a solid body, propagates itself 
around in waves that diminish as they widen, and gradually 



EQUILIBRATION. 441 

become lost to observation in motions communicated to the 
atmosphere and the matter on the shores. The impulse 
given by a player to the harp-string, is transformed through 
its vibrations into aerial pulses ; and these, spreading on all 
sides, and weakening as they spread, soon cease to be per- 
ceptible ; and finally die away in generating thermal undula- 
tions that radiate into space. Equally in the cinder that falls 
out of the fire, and in the vast masses of molten lava ejected 
by a volcano, we see that the molecular agitation known to 
us as heat, disperses itself by radiation; so that however 
great its amount, it inevitably sinks at last to the same degree 
as that existing in surrounding bodies. And if the actions 
observed be electrical or chemical, we still find that they work 
themselves out in producing sensible or insensible movements, 
that are dissipated as before ; until quiescence is eventually 
reached. The proximate rationale of the process 

exhibited under these several forms, lies in the fact 
dwelt on when treating of the Multiplication of Effects, that 
motions are ever being decomposed into divergent motions, 
and these into re-divergent motions. The rolling stone 
sends off the stones it hits in directions differing more or less 
from its own ; and they do the like with the things they hit. 
Move water or air, and the movement is quickly resolved into 
radiating movements. The heat produced by pressure in a 
given direction, diffuses itself by undulations in all. directions ; 
and so do the light and electricity similarly generated. 
That is to say, these motions undergo division and subdivi- 
sion ; and by continuance of this process without limit, they 
are, though never lost, gradually reduced to insensible mo- 
tions. 

In all cases then, there is a progress toward equilibration. 
That universal co- existence of antagonist forces which, as we 
before saw, necessitates the universality of rhythm, and 
which, as we before saw, necessitates the decomposition of 
every force into divergent forces, at the same time necessi- 
tates the ultimate establishment of a balance. Every motion 
20* 



442 EQUILIBRATION. 

being motion under resistance, is continually suffering de- 
ductions ; and these unceasing deductions finally result in the 
cessation of the motion. 

The general truth thus illustrated under its simplest 
aspect, we must now look at under those more complex 
aspects it usually presents throughout Nature. In nearly all 
cases, the motion of an aggregate is compound ; and the equi- 
libration of each of its components, being carried on inde- 
pendently, does not affect the rest. The ship's bell that has 
ceased to vibrate, still continues those vertical and lateral 
oscillations caused by the ocean-swell. The water of the 
smooth stream on whose surface have died away the undu- 
lations caused by the rising fish, moves as fast as before 
onward to the sea. The arrested bullet travels with 
undiminished speed round the Earth's axis. And were the 
rotation of the Earth destroyed, there would not be implied 
any diminution of the Earth's movement with respect to the 
Sun and other external bodies. So that in every case, what 
we regard as equilibration is a disappearance of some one or 
more of the many movements which a body possesses, while 
its other movements continue as before. That this 

process may be duly realized and the state of things towards 
which it tends fully understood, it will be well here to cite a 
case in which we may watch this successive equilibration of 
combined movements more completely than we can do in 
those above instanced. Our end will best be served, not by 
the most imposing, but by the most familiar example. Let 
us take that of the spinning top. "When the string which 
has been wrapped round a top's axis is violently drawn off, 
and the top falls on to the table, it usually happens that be- 
sides the rapid rotation, two other movements are given to it. 
A slight horizontal momentum, unavoidably impressed on it 
when leaving the handle, carries it away bodily from the 
place on which it drops ; and in consequence of its axis being 
more or less inclined, it falls into a certain oscilla- 
tion, described by the expressive though inelegant word— 



EQUILIBRATION. 443 

"wabbling." These two subordinate motions, variable in 
their proportions to each other and to the chief motion, are 
commonly soon brought to a close by separate processes of 
equilibration. The momentum which carries the top bodily 
along the table, resisted somewhat by the air, but mainly by 
the irregularities of the surface, shortly disappears ; and the 
top thereafter continues to spin on one spot. Meanwhile, in 
consequence of that opposition which the axial momentum of 
a rotating body makes to any change in the plane of rotation, 
(so beautifully exhibited by the gyroscope,) the " wabbling" 
diminishes ; and like the other is quickly ended. These 
minor motions having been dissipated, the rotatory motion, 
interfered with only by atmospheric resistance and the fric- 
tion of the pivot, continues some time with such uniformity 
that the top appears stationary : there being thus temporarily 
established a condition which the French mathematicians 
have termed equilibrium mobile. It is true that when the 
axial velocity sinks below a certain point, new motions com- 
mence, and increase till the top falls; but these are merely 
incidental to a case in which the centre of gravity is above 
the point of support. Were the top, having an axis of 
steel, to be suspended from a surface adequately magnetized, 
all the phenomena described would be displayed, and the 
moving equilibrium having been once arrived at, would con- 
tinue until the top became motionless, without any further 
change of position. Now the facts which it behoves 

us here to observe, are these. First, that the various motions 
which an aggregate possesses are separately equilibrated: 
those which are smallest, or which meet with the greatest 
resistance, or both, disappearing first ; and leaving at last, 
that which is greatest, or meets with least resistance, or both. 
Second, that when the aggregate has a movement of its parts 
with respect to each other, which encounters but little external 
resistance, there is apt to be established an equilibrium 
mobile. Third, that this moving equilibrium eventually 
lapses into complete equilibrium. 






444 EQUILIBRATION. 

Fully to comprehend the process of equilibration, is not 
easy ; since we have simultaneously to contemplate various 
phases of it. The best course will be to glance separately at 
what we may conveniently regard as its four different 
orders. The first order includes the comparatively 

simple motions, as those of projectiles, which are not pro- 
longed enough to exhibit their rhythmical character ; but 
which, being quickly divided and subdivided into motions 
communicated to other portions of matter, are presently dis- 
sipated in the rhythm of ethereal undulations. In 
the second order, comprehending the various kinds of vi- 
bration or oscillation as usually witnessed, the motion is used 
up in generating a tension which, having become equal to it or 
momentarily equilibrated with it, thereupon produces a mo- 
tion in the opposite direction, that is subsequently equili- 
brated in like manner : thus causing a visible rhythm, that 
is, however, soon lost in invisible rhythms. The third 
order of equilibration, not hitherto noticed, obtains in those 
aggregates which continually receive as much motion as they 
expend. The steam engine (and especially that kind which 
feeds its own furnace and boiler) supplies an example. Here 
the force from moment to moment dissipated in overcoming 
the resistance of the machinery driven, is from moment to 
moment re-placed from the fuel; and the balance of the 
two is maintained by a raising or lowering of the expenditure 
according to the variation of the supply : each increase or 
decrease in the quantity of steam, resulting in a rise or fall 
of the engine's movement, such as brings it to a balance with 
the increased or decreased resistance. This, which we may 
fitly call the dependent moving equilibrium, should be 
specially noted ; since it is one that we shall commonly meet 
with throughout various phases of Evolution. The 
equilibration to be distinguished as of the fourth order, is the 
independent or perfect moving equilibrium. This we see 
illustrated in the rhythmical motions of the Solar System ; 
which, being resisted only by a medium of inappreciable 



EQUILIBRATION. 445 

density, undergo no sensible diminution in such periods of 
time as we can measure. 

All these kinds of equilibration may, however, from the 
highest point of view, be regarded as different modes of one 
kind. For in every case the balance arrived at is relative, 
and not absolute — is a cessation of the motion of some par- 
ticular body in relation to a certain point or points, in- 
volving neither the disappearance of the relative motion lost, 
which is simply transformed into other motions, nor a dimi- 
nution of the body's motions with respect to other points. 
Thus understanding equilibration, it manifestly includes that 
equilibrium mobile, which at first sight seems of another 
nature. For any system of bodies exhibiting, like those of 
the Solar System, a combination of balanced rhythms, has 
this peculiarity ; — that though the constituents of the system 
have relative movements, the system as a whole has no 
movement. The centre of gravity of the entire group re- 
mains fixed. "Whatever quantity of motion any member 
of it has in any direction, is from moment to moment 
counter-balanced by an equivalent motion in some other 
part of the group in an opposite direction; and so the 
aggregate matter of the group is in a state of rest. Whence 
it follows that the arrival at a state of moving equilibrium, 
is the disappearance of some movement which the ag- 
gregate had in relation to external things, and a con- 
tinuance of those movements only which the different parts 
of the aggregate have in relation to each other. Thus 
generalizing the process, it becomes clear that all forms of 
equilibration are intrinsically the same ; since in every 
aggregate, it is the centre of gravity only that loses it3 
motion : the constituents always retaining some motion with 
respect to each other — the motion of molecules if none else. 

Those readers who happen to bear in mind a proposition 
concerning the functional characteristics of Evolution, which 
was set forth in Chapter XII, will probably regard it as 
wholly at variance with that set forth in this Chapter. It 






446 EQUILIBRATION 

was there alleged that throughout Evolution, integration of 
matter is accompanied by integration of such motion as 
the matter previously had ; and that thus there is a trans- 
formation of diffused motion into aggregated motion, parallel 
to the transformation of diffused matter into aggregated 
matter. Here however, it is asserted that every aggregate 
motion is constantly undergoing diffusion — every integrated 
motion undergoing perpetual disintegration. And so the 
motion of masses, which before was said gradually to arise 
out of molecular motion, is here said to be gradually lost in 
molecular motion. Doubtless these statements, if severally 
accepted without qualification, are contradictory. Neither 
of them, however, expresses the whole truth. Each needs the 
other as its indispensable complement. It is quite true, as 
before alleged, that there goes on an integration of motion 
corresponding to the integration of matter ; and that this 
essential characteristic of Evolution, functionally considered, 
is clearly displayed in proportion as the Evolution is 
active. But the disintegration of motion, which, as we 
before saw, constitutes Dissolution, functionally considered, 
is all along going on; and though at first it forms but 
a small deduction from the change constituting Evolution, 
it gradually becomes equal to it, and eventually exceed- 
ing it, entails reverse changes. The aggregation of matter 
never being complete, but leaving behind less aggregated 
or unaggregated matter, in the shape of liquid, aeriform, 
or ethereal media ; it results that from the beginning, the 
integrated motion of integrated masses, is ever being ob- 
structed by these less integrated or unintegrated media. So 
that though while the integration of matter is rapidly going 
on, there is an increase of integrated motion, spite of the 
deductions thus continually made from it, there comes a time 
when the integration of matter and consequently of motion, 
ceases to increase, or increases so slowly that the deductions 
counter-balance it ; and thenceforth these begin to decrease 
it, and, by its perpetual diffusion, to bring about a relative 



EQUILIBRATION. 447 

equilibration. From the beginning, the process of Evolution 
is antagonized by a process of Dissolution; and while the 
first for a long time predominates, the last finally arrests 
and reverses it. 

Returning from this parenthetical explanation, we must 
now especially note two leading truths brought out by the 
foregoing exposition : the one concerning the ultimate, or 
rather the penultimate, state of motion which the processes de- 
scribed tend to bring about ; the other concerning the concom- 
itant distribution of matter. This penultimate state 
of motion is the moving equilibrium ; which, as we have seen, 
tends to arise in an aggregate having compound motions, as a. 
transitional state on the way towards complete equilibrium. 
Throughout Evolution of all kinds, there is a continual ap- 
proximation to, and more or less complete maintenance of, this 
moving equilibrium. As in the Solar System there has been 
established an independent moving equilibrium — an equili- 
brium such that the relative motions of the constituent parts 
are continually so counter-balanced by opposite motions, 
that the mean state of the whole aggregate never varies ; so 
is it, though in a less distinct manner, with each form of de- 
pendent moving equilibrium. The state of things exhibited 
in the cycles of terrestrial changes, in the balanced functions 
of organic bodies that have reached their adult forms, and in 
the acting and re-acting processes of fully- developed socie- 
ties, is similarly one characterized by compensating oscilla- 
tions. The involved combination of rhythms seen in each 
of these cases, has an average condition which remains prac- 
tically constant during the deviations ever taking place on 
opposite sides of it. And the fact which we have here par- 
ticularly to observe, is, that as a corollary from the general 
law of equilibration above set forth, the evolution of every 
aggregate must go on until this equilibrium mobile is estab- 
lished; since, as we have seen, an excess of force which 
the aggregate possesses in any direction, must eventually 
be expended in overcoming resistances to change in that 






448 EQUILIBRATION. 

direction : leaving behind only those movements which 
compensate each other, and so form a moving equili- 
brium. Respecting the structural state simultane- 
ously reached, it must obviously be one presenting an ar- 
rangement of forces that counterbalance all the forces to 
which the aggregate is subject. So long as there remains a 
residual force in any direction — be it excess of a force exer- 
cised by the aggregate on its environment, or of a force 
exercised by its environment on the aggregate, equilibrium 
does not exist ; and therefore the re-distribution of matter 
must continue. Whence it follows that the limit of hetero- 
geneity towards which every aggregate progresses, is the 
formation of as many specializations and combinations of 
parts, as there are specialized and combined forces to be met. 

§ 131. Those successively changed forms which, if the 
nebular hypothesis be granted, must have arisen during 
the evolution of the Solar System, were so many transitional 
kinds of moving equilibrium ; severally giving place to more 
permanent kinds on the way towards complete equilibration. 
Thus the assumption of an oblate spheroidal figure by con- 
densing nebulous matter, was the assumption of a temporary 
and partial moving equilibrium among the component parts 
— a moving equilibrium that must have slowly grown 
more settled, as local conflicting movements were dis- 
sipated. In the formation and detachment of the 
nebulous rings, which, according to this hypothesis, from time 
to time took place, we have instances of progressive equili- 
bration ending in the establishment of a complete moving 
equilibrium. For tire genesis of each such ring, implies a 
perfect balancing of that aggregative force which the 
whole spheroid exercises on its equatorial portion, by that 
centrifugal force which the equatorial portion has acquired 
during previous concentration : so long as these two forces 
are not equal, the equatorial portion follows the contracting 
mass • but as soon as the second force has increased up to an 



EQUILIBRATION. 449 

equality with the first, the equatorial portion can follow no 
further, and remains behind. While, however, the resulting 
ring, regarded as a whole connected by forces with external 
wholes, has reached a state of moving equilibrium ; its parts 
are not balanced with respect to each other. As we 
before saw (§ 110) the probabilities against the mainte- 
nance of an annular form by nebulous matter, are immense : 
from the instability of the homogeneous, it is inferrable that 
nebulous matter so distributed must break up into portions ; 
and eventually concentrate into a single mass. That is to 
say, the ring must progress towards a moving equilibrium 
of a more complete kind, during the dissipation of that 
motion which maintained its particles in a diffused form: 
leaving at length a planetary body, attended perhaps by a 
group of minor bodies, severally having residuary relative 
motions that are no longer resisted by sensible media ; and 
there is thus constituted an equilibrium mobile that is all but 
absolutely perfect.* 

Hypothesis aside, the principle of equilibration is still 
perpetually illustrated in those minor changes of state which 
the Solar System is undergoing. Each planet, satellite, 
and comet, exhibits to us at its aphelion a momentary equili- 

* Sir David Brewster has recently been citing with approval, a calculation 
by M. Babinet, to the effect that on the hypothesis of nebular genesis, the 
matter of the Sun, when it filled the Earth's orbit, must have taken 3181 years 
to rotate ; and that therefore the hypothesis cannot be true. This calculation of 
M. Babinet may pair-off with that of M. Comte, who, contrariwise, made the 
time of this rotation agree very nearly with the Earth's period of revolution 
round the Sun ; for if M. Comte's calculation involved a petitio principii, that of 
M. Babinet is manifestly based on two assumptions, both of which are gratuitous, 
and one of them totally inconsistent with the doctrine to be tested. He has evi- 
dently proceeded on the current supposition respecting the Sun's internal density, 
which is not proved, and from which there are reasons for dissenting; and 
he has evidently taken for granted that all parts of the nebulous spheroid, when it 
filled the Earth's orbit, had the same angular velocity ; whereas if (as is implied 
in the nebular hypothesis, rationally understood) this spheroid resulted from the 
concentration of far more widely-diffused matter, the angular velocity of its 
equatorial portion would obviously be immensely greater than that of its central 
portion. 



450 iLQUILIBRATION. 

brium between that force which urges it further away from 
its primary, and that force which retards its retreat; since 
the retreat goes on until the last of these forces exactly 
counterpoises the first. In like manner at perihelion a con- 
verse equilibrium is momentarily established. The varia- 
tion of each orbit in size, in eccentricity, and in the position 
of its plane, has similarly a limit at which the forces pro- 
ducing change in the one direction, are equalled by those 
antagonizing it ; and an opposite limit at which an opposite 
arrest takes place. Meanwhile, each of these simple perturb- 
ations, as well as each of the complex ones resulting from 
their combination, exhibits, besides the temporary equilibra- 
tion at each of its extremes, a certain general equilibra- 
tion of compensating deviations on either side of a mean 
state. That the moving equilibrium thus constituted, 

tends, in the course of indefinite time, to lapse into a complete 
equilibrium, by the gradual decrease of planetary motions 
and eventually integration of all the separate masses com- 
posing the Solar System, is a belief suggested by certain 
observed cometary retardations, and entertained by some of 
high authority. The received opinion that the appreciable 
diminution in the period of Encke's comet, implies a loss of mo- 
mentum caused by resistance of the ethereal medium, commits 
astronomers who hold it, to the conclusion that this same re- 
sistance must cause a loss of planetary motions — a loss which, 
infinitesimal though it may be in such periods as we can 
measure, will, if indefinitely continued, bring these motions 
to a close. Even should there be, as Sir John Herschel sug- 
gests, a rotation of the ethereal medium in the same direction 
with the planets, this arrest, though immensely postponed, 
would not be absolutely prevented. Such an eventuality, 
however, must in any case be so inconceivably remote as 
to have no other than a speculative interest for us. It is 
referred to here, simply as illustrating the still-continued 
tendency towards complete equilibrium, through the still- 



EQUILIBRATION. 451 

continued dissipation of sensible motion, or transformation of 
it into insensible motion. 

But there is another species of equilibration going on in 
the Solar System, with which we are more nearly concerned — 
the equilibration of that molecular motion known as heat. 
The tacit assumption hitherto current, that the Sun can con- 
tinue to give off an undiminished amount of light and heat 
through all future time, is fast being abandoned. Involv- 
ing as it does, under a disguise, the conception of power pro- 
duced out of nothing, it is of the same order as the belief that 
misleads perpetual-motion schemers. The spreading recog- 
nition of the truth that force is persistent, and that conse- 
quently whatever force is manifested under one shape must 
previously have existed under another shape, is carrying with 
it a recognition of the truth that the force known to us in 
solar radiations, is the changed form of some other force of 
which the Sun is the seat ; and that by the gradual dissipa- 
tion of these radiations into space, this other force is being 
slowly exhausted. The aggregative force by which the Sun's 
substance is drawn to his centre of gravity, is the only one 
which established physical laws warrant us in suspecting to be 
the correlate of the forces thus emanating from him : the only 
source of a known kind that can be assigned for the insensible 
motions constituting solar light and heat, is the sensible motion 
which disappears during the progressing concentration of the 
Sun's substance. We before saw it to be a corollary from the 
nebular hypothesis, that there is such a progressing concentra- 
tion of the Sun's substance. And here remains to be added the 
further corollary, that just as in the case of the smaller mem- 
bers of the Solar System, the heat generated by concentration, 
long ago in great part radiatedinto space, has left only a central 
residue that now escapes but slowly ; so in the case of that im- 
mensely larger mass forming the Sun, the immensely greater 
quantity of heat generated and still in process of rapid diffusion, 
must, as the concentration approaches its limit, diminish in 



452 EQUILIBRATION. 

amount, and eventually leave only an inappreciable internal 
remnant. "With or without the accompaniment of 

that hypothesis of nebular condensation, whence, as we see, 
it naturally follows, the doctrine that the Sun is gradually 
losing his heat, has now gained considerable currency ; and 
calculations have been made, both respecting the amount of 
heat and light already radiated, as compared with the amount 
that remains, and respecting the period during which active 
radiation is likely to continue. Prof. Helmholtz estimates, 
that since the time when, according to the nebular hypothesis, 
the matter composing the Solar System extended to the orbit 
of Neptune, there has been evolved by the arrest of sensible 
motion, an amount of heat 454 times as great as that which 
the Sun still has to give out. He also makes an approximate 
estimate of the rate at which this remaining ^^-th is being 
diffused : showing that a diminution of the Sun's diameter to 
the extent of to,o~oo"> would produce heat, at the present rate, 
for more than 2000 years ; or in other words, that a contrac- 
tion of -To ,o"^i','oo _ o °f h^ s diameter, suffices to generate the 
amount of light and heat annually emitted ; and that thus, at 
the present rate of expenditure, the Sun's diameter will di- 
minish by something like -J^- in the lapse of the next million 
years.* Of course these conclusions are not to be considered 
as more than rude approximations to. the truth. Until quite 
recently, we have been totally ignorant of the Sun's chemical 
composition ; and even now have obtained but a superficial 
knowledge of it. We know nothing of his internal structure ; 
and it is quite possible (probable, I believe,) that the 
assumptions respecting central density, made in the foregoing 
estimates, are wrong. But no uncertainty in the data on 
which these calculations ' proceed, and no consequent error in 
the inferred rate at which the Sun is expending his reserve 
of force, militates against the general proposition that this 

* See paper " On the Inter-action of Natural Forces," by Prof. Helmholtz, 
translated by Prof. Tyndall, and published in the Philosophical Magazine, supple- 
ment to Vol. XI. fourth series. 



EQUILIBRATION. 453 

reserve of force is being expended ; and must in time be ex- 
hausted. Though the residue of imdiffused motion in the Sun, 
may be much greater than is above concluded ; though the 
rate of radiation cannot, as assumed, continue at a uniform 
rate, but must eventually go on with slowly- decreasing 
rapidity ; and though the period at which the Sun will cease 
to afford us adequate light and heat, is very possibly far more 
distant than above implied ; yet such a period must some 
time be reached, and this is all which it here concerns us 
to observe. 

Thus while the Solar System, if evolved from diffused mat- 
ter, has illustrated the law of equilibration in the establishment 
of a complete moving equilibrium ; and while, as at present con- 
stituted, it illustrates the law of equilibration in the balancing 
of all its movements ; it also illustrates this law in the pro- 
cesses which astronomers and physicists infer are still going 
on. That motion of masses produced during Evolution, is 
being slowly re- diffused in molecular motion of the ethereal 
medium ; both through the progressive integration of each 
mass, and the resistance to its motion through space. Infinitely 
remote as may be the state when all the motions of masses shall 
be transformed into molecular motion, and all the molecular 
motion equilibrated ; yet such a state of complete integration 
and complete equilibration, is that towards which the changes 
now going on throughout the Solar System inevitably tend. 

§ 132. A spherical figure is the one which can alone equi- 
librate the forces of mutually- gravitating atoms. If the ag- 
gregate of such atoms has a rotatory motion, the form of 
equilibrium becomes a spheroid of greater or less oblateness, 
according to the rate of rotation ; and it has been ascertained 
that the Earth is an oblate spheroid, diverging just as much 
from sphericity as is requisite to counterbalance the centrifugal 
force consequent on its velocity round its axis. That is to 
say, during the evolution of the Earth, there has been reached 
a complete equilibrium of those forces which affect its general 



454 EQUILIBRATION. 

outline. The only other process of equilibration 

which the Earth as a whole can exhibit, is the loss of its axial 
motion ; and that any such loss is going on, we have no 
direct evidence. It has been contended, however, by Prof. 
Helmholtz, that inappreciable as may be its effect within 
known periods of time, the friction of the tidal wave must 
be slowly diminishing the Earth's rotatory motion, and must 
eventually destroy it. Now though it seems an oversight 
to say that the Earth's rotation can thus be destroyed, since 
the extreme effect, to be reached only in infinite time by such 
a process, would be an extension of the Earth's day to the 
length of a lunation ; yet it seems clear that this friction 
of the tidal wave is a real cause of decreasing rotation. Slow 
as its action is, we must recognize it as exemplifying, under 
another form, the universal progress towards equilibrium. 

It is needless to point out, in detail, how those movements 
which the Sun's rays generate in the air and water on the 
Earth's surface, and through them in the Earth's solid sub- 
stance,* one and all teach the same general truth. Evidently 
the winds and waves and streams, as well as the denudations and 
depositions they effect, perpetually illustrate on a grand scale, 
and in endless modes, that gradual dissipation of motions 
described in the first section ; and the consequent tendency 
towards a balanced distribution of forces. Each of these 
sensible motions, produced directly or indirectly by integra- 
tion of those insensible motions communicated from the Sun, 
becomes, as we have seen, divided and subdivided into 
motions less and less sensible ; until it is finally reduced to 
insensible motions, and radiated from the Earth in the shape 
of thermal undulations. In their totality, these com- 

* Until I recently consulted his " Outlines of Astronomy" on another ques- 
tion, I was not aware that so far back as 1833, Sir John Herschel had enunci- 
ated the doctrine that " the sun's rays are the ultimate source of almost every 
motion which takes place on the surface of the earth." He expressly includes 
all geologic, meteor ologic, and vital actions ; as also those which we produce by 
the combustion of coal. The late George Stephenson appears to have been 
wrongly credited with this last idea 



EQUILIBRATION. 455 

plex movements of aerial, liquid, and solid matter on the 
Earth's crust, constitute a dependent moving equilibrium. As 
we before saw, there is traceable throughout them an in- 
volved combination of rhythms. The unceasing circula- 
tion of water from the ocean to the land, and from the land 
back to the ocean, is a type of these various compensating 
actions ; which, in the midst of all the irregularities produced 
by their mutual interferences, maintain an average. And in 
this, as in other equilibrations of the third order, we see that 
the power from moment to moment in course of dissipation, 
is from moment to moment renewed from without : the rises 
and falls in the supply, being balanced by rises and falls in the 
expenditure ; as witness the correspondence between the mag- 
netic variations and the cycle of the solar spots. But 
the fact it chiefly concerns us to observe, is, that this process 
must go on bringing things ever nearer to complete rest. 
These mechanical movements, meteorologic and geologic, 
which are continually being equilibrated, both temporarily 
by counter-movements and permanently by the dissipation of 
such movements and counter-movements, will slowly diminish 
as the quantity of force received from the Sun diminishes. 
As the insensible motions propagated to us from the centre 
of our system become feebler, the sensible motions here pro- 
duced by them must decrease ; and at that remote period 
when the solar heat has ceased to be appreciable, there will 
no longer be any appreciable re-distributions of matter on the 
surface of our planet. 

Thus from the highest point of view, all terrestrial changes 
are incidents in the course of cosmical equilibration. It was 
before pointed out, (§ 80) that of the incessant alterations 
which the Earth's crust and atmosphere undergo, those which 
are not due to the still-progressing motion of the Earth's sub- 
stance towards its centre of gravity, are due to the still-pro- 
gressing motion of the Sun's substance towards its centre of 
gravity. Here it is to be remarked, that this continuance of 
integration in the Earth and in the Sun, is a continuance of 



456 EQUILIBRATION. 

that transformation of sensible motion into insensible motion 
which we have seen ends in equilibration ; and that the ar- 
rival in each case at the extreme of integration, is the arrival 
at a state in which no more sensible motion remains to be 
transformed into insensible motion — a state in which the 
forces producing integration and the forces opposing integra- 
tion, have become equal. 

§ 133. Every living body exhibits, in a four-fold form, 
the process we are tracing out — exhibits it from moment to 
moment in the balancing of mechanical forces ; from hour to 
hour in the balancing of functions ; from year to year in the 
changes of state that compensate changes of condition ; and 
finally in the complete arrest of vital movements at death. 
Let us consider the facts under these heads. 

The sensible motion constituting each visible action of an 
organism, is soon brought to a close by some adverse force 
within or without the organism. "When the arm is raised, the 
motion given to it is antagonized partly by gravity and partly 
by the internal resistances consequent on structure ; and its 
motion, thus suffering continual deduction, ends when the arm 
has reached a position at which the forces are equilibrated. The 
limits of each systole and diastole of the heart, severally show 
us a momentary equilibrium between muscular strains that pro- 
duce opposite movements ; and each gush of blood requires 
to be immediately followed by another, because the rapid 
dissipation of its momentum would otherwise soon bring 
the mass of circulating fluid to a stand. As much in the 
actions and re- actions going on among the internal organs, 
as in the mechanical balancing of the whole body, there is at 
every instant a progressive equilibration of the motions at 
every instant produced. Viewed in their aggregate, 

and as forming a series^ the organic functions constitute 
a dependent moving equilibrium — a moving equilibrium, 
of which the motive power is ever being dissipated through 
the special equilibrations just exemplified, and is ever 



EQUILIBRATION. 457 

being renewed by the taking in of additional motive power. 
Food is a store of force which, continually adds to the momen- 
tum of the vital actions, as much as is continually deducted 
from them by the forces overcome. All the functional move- 
ments thus maintained, are, as we have seen, rhythmical (§ 96) ; 
by their union compound rhythms of various lengths and 
complexities are produced ; and in these simple and com- 
pound rhythms, the process of equilibration, besides being 
exemplified at each extreme of every rhythm, is seen in the 
habitual preservation of a constant mean, and in the re- estab- 
lishment of that mean when accidental causes have produced 
divergence from it. When, for instance, there is a great ex- 
penditure of motion through muscular activity, there arises a 
re-active demand on those stores of latent motion which are laid 
up in the form of consumable matter throughout the tissues : 
increased respiration and increased rapidity of circulation, 
are instrumental to an extra genesis of force, that counter- 
balances the extra dissipation of force. This unusual trans- 
formation of molecular motion into sensible motion, is presently 
followed by an unusual absorption of food — the source of mole- 
cular motion ; and in proportion as there has been a prolonged 
draft upon the spare capital of the system, is there a tendency 
to a prolonged rest, during which that spare capital is replaced. 
If the deviation from the ordinary course of the functions has 
been so great as to derange them, as when violent exertion 
produces loss of appetite and loss of sleep, an equilibration is 
still eventually effected. Providing the disturbance is not 
such as to overturn the balance of the functions, and destroy 
life (in which case a complete equilibration is suddenly effected), 
the ordinary balance is by and by re-established : the return- 
ing appetite is keen in proportion as the waste has been large ; 
while sleep, sound and prolonged, makes up for previous wake- 
fulness. ISTot even in those extreme cases where some excess 
has wrought a derangement that is never wholly rectified, is 
there an exception to the general law ; for in such cases the 

cycle of the functions is, after a time, equilibrated about a new 
21 



458 EQUILIBRATION. 

mean state, which thenceforth becomes the normal state of 
the individual. Thus, among the involved rhythmical changes 
constituting organic life, any disturbing force that works an 
excess of change in some direction, is gradually diminished 
and finally neutralized by antagonistic forces ; which there- 
upon work a compensating change in the opposite direction, 
and so, after more or less of oscillation, restore the medium 
condition. And this process it is, which constitutes what 
physicians call the vis medicatrix naturae. The third 

form of equilibration displayed by organic bodies, is a neces- 
sary sequence of that just illustrated. When through a 
change of habit or circumstance, an organism is permanently 
subject to some new influence, or different amount of an old 
influence, there arises, after more or less disturbance of the 
organic rhythms, a balancing of them around the new average 
condition produced by this additional influence. As temporary 
divergences of the organic rhythms are counteracted by tem- 
porary divergences of a reverse kind ; so there is an equili- 
bration of their permanent divergences by the genesis of oppos- 
ing divergences that are equally permanent. If the quantity 
of motion to be habitually generated by a muscle, becomes 
greater than before, its nutrition becomes greater than before. 
If the expenditure of the muscle bears to its nutrition, a 
greater ratio than expenditure bears to nutrition in other parts 
of the system ; the excess of nutrition becomes such that the 
muscle grows. And the cessation of its growth is the estab- 
lishment of a balance between the daily waste and the daily 
repair — the daily expenditure of force, and the amount of 
latent force daily added. The like must manifestly be the 
case with all organic modifications consequent on change of 
climate or food. This is a conclusion which we may safely 
draw without knowing the special re- arrangements that ef- 
fect the equilibration. If we see that a different mode of 
life is followed, after a period of functional derangement, 
by some altered condition of the system — if we see that this 
altered condition, becoming by and by established, continues 



EQUILIBRATION. 459 

without further change ; we have no alternative but to say, 
that the new forces brought to bear on the system, have 
been compensated by the opposing forces they have evoked. 
And this is the interpretation of the process which we call 
adaptation. Finally, each organism illustrates the 

law in the ensemble of its life. At the outset it daily absorbs 
under the form of food, an amount of force greater than it 
daily expends ; and the surplus is daily equilibrated by 
growth. As maturity is approached, this surplus diminishes ; 
and in the perfect organism, the day's absorption of potential 
motion balances the day's expenditure of actual motion. That 
is to say, during adult life, there is continuously exhibited an 
equilibration of the third order. Eventually, the daily loss, 
beginning to out-balance the daily gain, there results a dimin- 
ishing amount of functional action ; the organic rhythms 
extend less and less widely on each side of the medium 
state ; and there finally results that complete equilibration 
which we call death. 

The ultimate structural state accompanying that ultimate 
functional state towards which an organism tends, both indivi- 
dually and as a species, may be deduced from one of the pro- 
positions set down in the opening section of this chapter. 
We saw that the limit of heterogeneity is arrived at when- 
ever the equilibration of any aggregate becomes complete — 
that the re- distribution of matter can continue so long only as 
there continues any motion unbalanced. - Whence we found it 
to follow that the final structural arrangements, must be such 
as will meet all the forces acting on the aggregate, by equiva- 
lent antagonist forces. What is the implication in the case 
of organic aggregates ; the equilibrium of which is a moving 
one ? We have seen that the maintenance of such a moving 
equilibrium, requires the habitual genesis of internal forces 
corresponding in number, directions, and amounts to the ex- 
ternal incident forces — as many inner functions, single or 
combined, as there are single or combined outer actions to be 
met. But functions are the correlatives of organs ; amounts 



460 EQUILIBRATION. 

of functions are, other things equal, the correlatives of sizes 
of organs ; and combinations of functions the correlatives of 
connections of organs. Hence the structural complexity 
accompanying functional equilibration, is definable as one in 
which there are as many specialized parts as are capable, 
separately and jointly, of counteracting the separate and 
joint forces amid which the organism exists. And this is the 
limit of organic .heterogeneity ; to which man has approached 
more nearly than any other creature. 

Groups of organisms display this universal tendency to- 
wards a balance very obviously. In § 96, every species of 
plant and animal was shown to be perpetually undergoing a 
rhythmical variation in number — now from abundance of 
food and absence of enemies rising above its average ; and 
then by a consequent scarcity of food and abundance of ene- 
mies being depressed below its average. And here we have 
to observe that there is thus maintained an equilibrium be- 
tween the sum of those forces which result in the increase of 
each race, and the sum of those forces which result in its de- 
crease. Either limit of variation is a point at which the one 
set of forces, before in excess of the other, is counterbalanced 
by it. And amid these oscillations produced by their con- 
flict, lies that average number of the species at which its 
expansive tendency is in equilibrium with surrounding 
repressive tendencies. Nor can it be questioned that this 
balancing of the preservative and destructive forces which 
we see going on in every race, must necessarily go on. Since 
increase of number cannot but continue until increase of 
mortality stops it ; and decrease of number cannot but con- 
tinue until it is either arrested by fertility or extinguishes the 
race entirely. 

§ 134. The equilibrations of those nervous actions which 
constitute what we know as mental life, may be classified in 
like manner with those which constitute what we dis- 



EQUILIBRATION. 461 

tinguish as bodily life. We may deal with them in the 
same order. 

Each pulse of nervous force from moment to moment gener- 
ated, (and it was shown in § 97 that nervous currents are not 
continuous but rhythmical) is met by counteracting forces ; in 
overcoming which it is dispersed and equilibrated. When 
tracing out the correlation and equivalence of forces, we saw 
that each sensation and emotion, or rather such part of it as 
remains after the excitation of associated ideas and feelings, 
is expended in working bodily changes — contractions of the 
involuntary muscles, the voluntary muscles, or both ; as also 
in a certain stimulation of secreting organs. That the move- 
ments thus initiated are ever being brought to a close by the 
opposing forces they evoke, was pointed out above ; and here it 
is to be observed that the like holds with the nervous changes 
thus initiated. Yarious facts prove that the arousing of a 
thought or feeling, always involves the overcoming of a cer- 
tain resistance : instance the fact that where the association 
of mental states has not been frequent, a sensible effort is 
needed to call up the one after the other ; instance the fact 
that during nervous prostration there is a comparative in- 
ability to think — the ideas will not follow one another with the 
habitual rapidity ; instance the converse fact that at times of 
unusual energy, natural or artificial, the friction of thought 
becomes relatively small, and more numerous, more remote, 
or more difficult connections of ideas are formed. That is to 
say, the wave of nervous energy each instant generated, pro- 
pagates itself throughout body and brain, along those chan- 
nels which the conditions at the instant render lines of least 
resistance ; and spreading widely in proportion to its amount, 
ends only when it is equilibrated by the resistances it every- 
where meets. If we contemplate mental actions as 
extending over hours and days, we discover equilibrations 
analogous to those hourly and daily established among the 
bodily functions. In the one case as in the other, there are 



462 ** EQUILIBRATION. 

rhythms which exhibit a balancing of opposing forces at each 
extreme, arid the maintenance of a certain general balance. 
This is seen in the daily alternation of mental activity and 
mental rest — the forces expended during the one being compen- 
sated by the forces acquired during the other. It is also seen in 
the recurring rise and fall of each desire: each desire reaching a 
certain intensity, is equilibrated either by expenditure of the 
force it embodies, in the desired actions, or, less completely, in 
the imagination of such actions : the process ending in that sa- 
tiety, or that comparative quiescence, forming the opposite limit 
of the rhythm. And it is further manifest under a two-fold 
form, on occasions of intense joy or grief: each paroxysm of 
passion, expressing itself in vehement bodily actions, presently 
reaches an extreme whence the counteracting forces produce 
a return to a condition of moderate excitement ; and the suc- 
cessive paroxysms finally diminishing in intensity, end in a 
mental equilibrium either like that before existing, or par- 
tially diifering from it in its medium state. But 
the species of mental equilibration to be more especially noted, 
is that shown in the establishment of a correspondence be- 
tween relations among our states of consciousness and relations 
in the external world. Each outer connection of phenomena 
which we are capable of perceiving, generates, through ac- 
cumulated experiences, an inner connection of mental states ; 
and the result towards which this process tends, is the forma- 
tion of a mental connection having a relative strength that 
answers to the relative constancy of the physical connection 
represented. In conformity with the general law that 
motion pursues the line of least resistance, and that, other 
things equal, a line once taken by motion is made a line that 
will be more readily pursued by future motion ; we have seen 
that the ease with which nervous impressions follow one an- 
other, is, other things equal, great in proportion to the num- 
ber of times they have been repeated together in experience. 
Hence, corresponding to such an invariable relation as that be- 
tween the resistance of an object and some extension possessed 



EQUILIBRATION. 463 

by it, there arises an indissoluble connection in consciousness ; 
and this connection, being as absolute internally as the answer- 
ing one is externally, undergoes no further change — the inner 
relation is in perfect equilibrium with the outer relation. 
Conversely, it hence happens that to such uncertain relations 
of phenomena as that between clouds and rain, there arise 
relations of ideas of a like uncertainty ; and if, under given 
aspects of the sky, the tendencies to infer fair or foul wea- 
ther, correspond to the frequencies with which fair or foul 
weather follow such aspects, the accumulation of experiences 
has balanced the mental sequences and the physical sequences. 
When it is remembered that between these extremes there 
are countless orders of external connections having different 
degrees of constancy, and that during the evolution of in- 
telligence there arise answering internal associations having 
different degrees of cohesion ; it will be seen that there is a 
progress towards equilibrium between the relations of thought 
and the relations of things. This equilibration can end 
only when each relation of things has generated in us a rela- 
tion of thought, such that on the occurrence of the conditions, 
the relation in thought arises as certainly as the relation in 
things. Supposing this state to be reached (which however it 
can be only in infinite time) experience will cease to produce 
any further mental evolution — there will have been reached a 
perfect correspondence between ideas and facts ; and the in- 
tellectual adaptation of man to his circumstances will be 
complete. The like general truths are exhibited in 

the process moral of adaptation ; which is a continual approach 
to equilibrium between the emotions and the kinds of con- 
duct necessitated by surrounding conditions. The connections 
of feelings and actions, are determined in the same way 
as the connections of ideas : just as repeating the association 
of two ideas, facilitates the excitement of the one by the 
other ; so does each discharge of feeling into action, render 
the subsequent discharge of such feeling into such action 
more easy. Hence it happens that if an individual is placed 



464 EQUILIBRATION. 

permanently in conditions which demand more action of a 
special kind than has before been requisite, or than is natural 
to him — if the pressure of the painful feelings which these 
conditions entail when disregarded, impels him to perform 
this action to a greater extent — if by every more frequent or 
more lengthened performance of it under such pressure, the 
resistance is somewhat diminished ; then, clearly, there 
is an advance towards a balance between the demand for 
this kind of action and the supply of it. Either in him- 
self, or in his descendants continuing to live under these 
conditions, enforced repetition must eventually bring about 
a state in which this mode of directing the energies will be 
no more repugnant than the various other, modes previously 
natural to the race. Hence the limit towards which emotional 
modification perpetually tends, and to which it must approach 
indefinitely near (though it can absolutely reach it only in 
infinite time) is a combination of desires that correspond to 
all the different orders of activity which the circumstances of 
life call for — desires severally proportionate in strength to 
the needs for these orders of activity ; and severally satisfied 
by these orders of activity. In what we distinguish as 
acquired habits, and in the moral differences of races and 
nations produced by habits that are maintained through suc- 
cessive generations, we have countless illustrations of this 
progressive adaptation ; which can cease only with the estab- 
lishment of a complete equilibrium between constitution and 
conditions. 

Possibly some will fail to see how the equilibrations de- 
scribed in this section, can be classed with those preceding 
them ; and will be inclined to say that what are here set 
down as facts, are but analogies. Nevertheless such equi- 
librations are as truly physical as the rest. To show this 
fully, would require a more detailed analysis than can now be 
entered on. For the present it must suffice to point out, as 
before (§ 82), that what we know subjectively as states of 



EQUILIBKATION. 465 

consciousness, are, objectively, modes of force ; that so much 
feeling is the correlate of so much motion ; that the performance 
of any bodily action is the transformation of a certain amount 
of feeling into its equivalent amount of motion; that this 
bodily action is met by forces which it is expended in over- 
coming ; and that the necessity for the frequent repetition of 
this action, implies the frequent recurrence of forces to be so 
overcome. Hence the existence in any individual of an 
emotional stimulus that is in equilibrium with certain ex- 
ternal requirements, is literally the habitual production of a 
certain specialized portion of nervous energy, equivalent in 
amount to a certain order of external resistances that are 
habitually met. And thus the ultimate state, forming the 
limit towards which Evolution carries us, is one in which the 
kinds and quantities of mental energy daily generated and 
transformed into motions, are equivalent to, or in equilibrium 
with, the various orders and degrees of surrounding forces 
which antagonize such motions. 

§ 135. Each society taken as a whole, displays the process 
of equilibration in the continuous adjustment of its population 
to its means of subsistence. A tribe of men living on wild 
animals and fruits, is manifestly, like every tribe of inferior 
creatures, always oscillating about that average number which 
the locality can support. Though by artificial production, and 
by successive improvements in artificial production, a superior 
race continually alters the limit which external conditions 
put to population ; yet there is ever a checking of population 
at the temporary limit reached. It is true that where the 
limit is being so rapidly changed as among ourselves, there 
is no actual stoppage : there is only a rhythmical variation 
in the rate of increase. But in noting the causes of this 
rhythmical variation — in watching how, during periods of 
abundance, the proportion of marriages increases, and how 
it decreases during periods of scarcity ; it will be seen that the 
21* 



466 EQUILIBRATION. 

expansive force produces unusual advance whenever the re- 
pressive force diminishes, and vice versa; and thus there is as 
near a balancing of the two as the changing conditions permit. 
The internal actions constituting social functions, exemplify 
the general principle no less clearly. Supply and demand 
are continually being adjusted throughout all industrial pro- 
cesses ; and this equilibration is interpretable in the same way 
as preceding ones. The production and distribution of a 
commodity, is the expression of a certain aggregate of forces 
causing special kinds and amounts of motion. The price of 
this commodity, is the measure of a certain other aggregate 
of forces expended by the labourer who purchases it, in other 
kinds and amounts of motion. And the variations of price 
represent a rhythmical balancing of these forces. Every rise 
or fall in the rate of interest, or change in the value of a 
particular security, implies a conflict of forces in which some, 
becoming temporarily predominant, cause a movement that 
is presently arrested or equilibrated by the increase of oppos- 
ing forces ; and amid these daily and hourly oscillations, lies a 
more slowly- varying medium, into which the value ever tends 
to settle ; and would settle but for the constant addition of new 
influences. As in the individual organism so in the 

social organism, functional equilibrations generate structural 
equilibrations. When on the workers in any trade there 
comes an increased demand, and when in return for the in- 
creased supply, there is given to them an amount of other com- 
modities larger than was before habitual — when, consequently, 
the resistances overcome by them in sustaining life are less 
than the resistances overcome by other workers ; there 
results a flow of other workers into this trade. This 
flow continues until the extra demand is met, and the 
wages so far fall again, that the total resistance over- 
come in obtaining a given amount of produce, is as great in 
this newly-adopted occupation as in the occupations whence 
it drew recruits. The occurrence of motion along lines of 
least resistance, was before shown to necessitate the growth 



EQUILIBRATION 467 

of population in those places where the labour required for 
self-maintenance is the smallest ; and here we further see 
that those engaged in any such advantageous locality, or 
advantageous business, must multiply till there arises an 
approximate balance between this locality or business and 
others accessible to the same citizens. In determining 
the career of every youth, we see an estimation by parents of 
the respective advantages offered by all that are available, 
and a choice of the one which promises best ; and through 
the consequent influx into trades that are at the time most 
profitable, and the withholding of recruits from over-stocked 
trades, there is insured a general equipoise between the 
power of each social organ and the function it has to perform. 
The various industrial actions and re-actions thus con- 
tinually alternating, constitute a dependent moving equili- 
brium like that which is maintained among the functions 
of an individual organism. And this dependent moving 
equilibrium parallels those already contemplated, in its tend- 
ency to become more complete. During early stages of 
social evolution, while yet the resources of the locality inha- 
bited are unexplored, and the arts of production undeveloped, 
there is never anything more than a temporary and partial 
balancing of such actions, under the form of acceleration or 
retardation of growth. But when a society approaches the 
maturity of that type on which it is organized, the vari- 
ous industrial activities settle down into a comparatively 
constant state. Moreover, it is observable that advance in 
organization, as well as advance in growth, is conducive to a 
better equilibrium of industrial functions. While the diffu- 
sion of mercantile information is slow, and the means of 
transport deficient, the adjustment of supply to demand is 
extremely imperfect: great over-production of each com- 
modity followed by great under-production, constitute a 
rhythm having extremes that depart very widely from the 
mean state in which demand and supply are equilibrated. 
But when good roads are made, and there is a rapid diffusion of 



468 



EQUILIBRATION. 



printed or written intelligence, and still more when railways 
and telegraphs come into existence — when the periodical 
fairs of early days lapse into weekly markets, and these into 
daily markets ; there is gradually produced a better balance 
of production and consumption. Extra demand is much 
more quickly followed by augmented supply ; and the rapid 
oscillations of price within narrow limits on either side of a 
comparatively uniform mean, indicate a near approach to 
equilibrium. Evidently this industrial progress has 

for its limit, that which Mr. Mill has called " the sta- 
tionary state." When population shall have become dense 
over all habitable parts of the globe ; when the resources of 
every region have been fully explored ; and when the product- 
ive arts admit of no further improvements ; there must result 
an almost complete balance, both between the fertility and 
mortality of each society, and between its producing and 
consuming activities. Each society will exhibit only minor 
deviations from its average number, and the rhythm of its 
industrial functions will go on from day to day and year 
to year with comparatively insignificant perturbations. This 
limit, however, though we are inevitably advancing towards 
it, is indefinitely remote ; and can never indeed be absolutely 
reached. The peopling of the Earth up to the point sup- 
posed, cannot take place by simple spreading. In the future, 
as in the past, the process will be carried on rhythmically, 
by waves of emigration from new and higher centres of 
civilization successively arising ; and by the supplanting of 
inferior races by the superior races they beget; and the 
process so carried on must be extremely slow. Nor does 
it seem to me that such an equilibration will, as Mr. Mill 
suggests, leave scope for further mental culture and moral 
progress ; but rather that the approximation to it must 
be simultaneous with the approximation to complete equi- 
librium between man's nature and the conditions of his 
existence. 

One other kind of social equilibration has still to be con- 



EQUILIBRATION. 469 

sidered : — that which results in the establishment of govern- 
mental institutions, and which becomes complete as these 
institutions fall into harmony with the desires of the people. 
There is a demand and supply in political affairs as in indus- 
trial affairs ; and in the one case as in the other, the antag- 
onist forces produce a rhythm which, at first extreme in its 
oscillations, slowly settles down into a moving equilibrium of 
comparative regularity. Those aggressive impulses inherited 
from the pre-social state — those tendencies to seek self-satis- 
faction regardless of injury to other beings, which are essen- 
tial to a predatory life, constitute an anti-social force, tending 
ever to cause conflict and eventual separation of citizens. 
Contrariwise, those desires whose ends can be achieved 
only by union, as well as those sentiments which find satisfac- 
tion through intercourse with fellow- men, and those result- 
ing in what we call loyalty, are forces tending to keep the 
units of a society together. On the one hand, there is in 
each citizen, more or less of resistance against all restraints 
imposed on his actions by other citizens : a resistance which, 
tending continually to widen each individual's sphere of 
action, and reciprocally to limit the spheres of action 
of other individuals, constitutes a repulsive force mutually 
exercised by the members of a social aggregate. On the 
other hand, the general sympathy of man for man, and 
the more special sympathy of each variety of man for others 
of the same variety, together with sundry allied feelings 
which the social state gratifies, act as an attractive force, 
tending ever to keep united those who have a common ances- 
try. And since the resistances to be overcome in satisfying 
the totality of their desires when living separately, are greater 
than the resistances to be overcome in satisfying the totality 
of their desires when living together, there is a residuary 
force that prevents their separation. Like all other opposing 
forces, those exerted by citizens on each other, are ever 
producing alternating movements, which, at first extreme, 
undergo a gradual diminution on the way to ultimate equili- 



470 EQUILIBRATION. 

brium. In small, undeveloped societies, marked rhythms 
result from these conflicting tendencies. A tribe whose 
members have held together for a generation or two, reaches 
a size at which it will not hold together ; and on the occur- 
rence of some event causing unusual antagonism among its 
members, divides. Each primitive nation, depending largely 
for its continued union on the character of its chief, exhibits 
wide oscillations between an extreme in which the subjects 
are under rigid restraint, and an extreme in which the 
restraint is not enough to prevent disorder. In more 
advanced nations of like type, we always find violent ac- 
tions and reactions of the same essential nature — " despotism 
tempered by assassination," characterizing a political state 
in which unbearable repression from time to time brings 
about a bursting of all bonds. In this familiar fact, that a 
period of tyranny is followed by a period of license and 
vice versa, we see how these opposing forces are ever equili- 
brating each other ; and we also see, in the tendency of such 
movements and counter-movements to become more moder- 
ate, how the equilibration progresses towards completeness. 
The conflicts between Conservatism (which stands for the 
restraints of society over the individual) and Reform (which 
stands for the liberty of the individual against society), fall 
within slowly approximating limits ; so that the temporary 
predominance of either, produces a less marked deviation 
from the medium state. This process, now so far 

advanced among ourselves that the oscillations are compara- 
tively unobtrusive, must go on till the balance between the 
antagonist forces approaches indefinitely near perfection. 
For, as we have already seen, the adaptation of man's nature 
to the conditions of his existence, cannot cease until the in- 
ternal forces which we know as feelings are in equilibrium 
with the external forces they encounter. And the establish- 
ment of this equilibrium, is the arrival at a state of human 
nature and social organization, such that the individual has 
no desires but those which may be satisfied without exceed- 



EQUILIBRATION. 471 

ing his proper sphere of action, while society maintains no 
restraints but those which the individual voluntarily re- 
spects. The progressive extension of the liberty of citizens, 
and the reciprocal removal of political restrictions, are the 
steps by which we advance towards this state. And the ulti- 
mate abolition of all limits to the freedom of each, save those 
imposed by the like freedom of all, must result from the 
complete equilibration between man's desires and the conduct 
necessitated by surrounding conditions. 

Of course in this case, as in the preceding ones, there is 
thus involved a limit to the increase of heterogeneity. A 
few pages back, we reached the conclusion that each advance 
in mental evolution, is the establishment of some further 
internal action, corresponding to some further external 
action — some additional connection of ideas or feelings, 
answering to some before unknown or unantagonized con- 
nection of phenomena. We inferred that each. such new 
function, involving some new modification of structure, 
implies an increase of heterogeneity ; and that thus, in- 
crease of heterogeneity must go on, while there remain any 
outer relations affecting the organism which are unbalanced 
by inner relations. "Whence we saw it to follow that in- 
crease of heterogeneity can come to an end only as equilibra- 
tion is completed. Evidently the like must simultaneously 
take place with society. Each increment of heterogeneity 
in the individual, must directly or indirectly involve, as 
cause or consequence, some increment of heterogeneity in 
the arrangements of the aggregate of individuals. And the 
limit to social complexity can be arrived at, only with the 
establishment of the equilibrium, just described, between 
social and individual forces. 

§ 136. Here presents itself a final question, which has pro- 
bably been taking a more or less distinct shape in the minds 
of many, while reading this chapter. " If Evolution of every 
kind, is an increase in complexity of structure and function 



472 EQUILIBRATION. 

that is incidental to the universal process of equilibration — if 
equilibration, passing through, the gradually -perfected forms 
of moving equilibrium, must end in complete rest ; what is 
the fate towards which all things tend ? If the bodies 
constituting our Solar System are slowly dissipating the 
forces they possess — if the Sun is losing his heat at a rate 
which, though insignificant as stated in terms of our chrono- 
logy, will tell in millions of years — if geologic and meteor o- 
logic processes cannot but diminish in activity as the Sun's 
radiations diminish — if with the diminution of these radia- 
tions there must also go on a diminution in the quantity of 
vegetal and animal existence — if Man and Society, however 
high the degree of evolution at which they arrive, are simi- 
larly dependent on this supply of force that is gradually 
coming to an end — if thus the highest, equally with the 
lowest, terrestrial life, must eventually dwindle and disap- 
pear ; are . we not manifestly progressing towards omni- 
present death ? And have we thus to contemplate, as the 
out- come of things, a universe of extinct suns round which 
circle planets devoid of life ?" 

That such a state must be the proximate end of the processes 
everywhere going on, seems beyond doubt. But the further 
question tacitly involved, whether this state will continue 
eternally, is quite a different one. To give a positive answer 
to this further question would be quite illegitimate ; since to 
affirm any proposition into which unlimited time enters as 
one of the terms, is to affirm a proposition of which one term 
cannot be represented in consciousness — is to affirm an un- 
thinkable proposition. At a first glance it may appear that 
the reverse conclusion must be equally illegitimate ; and that 
so the question is altogether insoluble. But further con- 
sideration will show that this is not true. So long as the 
terms to which we confine our reasonings are finite, the finite 
conclusions reached are not necessarily illegitimate. Though, 
if the general argument, when carried out, left no ap- 
parent escape from the inference that the state of rest to 



EQUILIBRATION. 473 

which. Evolution is carrying things, must, when arrived 
at, last for ever, this inference would be invalid, as trans- 
cending the scope of human intelligence ; yet if, on pushing 
further the general argument, we bring out the inference 
that such a state will not last for ever, this inference is 
not necessarily invalid : since, by the hypothesis, it con- 
tains no terms necessarily transcending the scope of human 
intelligence. It is permissible therefore, to inquire, what 
are the probable ulterior results of this process which must 
bring Evolution to a close in Universal Death. Without 
being so rash as to form anything like a positive conclu- 
sion on a matter so vast and so far beyond the boundaries of 
exact science ; we may still inquire what seems to be the 
remote future towards which the facts point. 

It has been already shown that all equilibration, so far 
as we can trace it, is relative. The dissipation of a body's 
motion by communication of it to surrounding matter, solid, 
liquid, gaseous, and ethereal, tends to bring the body to 
a fixed position in relation to the matter that abstracts its 
motion. But all its other motions continue as before. The 
arrest of a cannon-shot does not diminish its movement 
towards the East at a thousand miles an hour, along with the 
wall it has struck ; and a gradual dispersion of the Earth's 
rotatory motion, would abstract nothing from the million 
and a half miles per day through which the Earth speeds in 
its orbit. Further, we have to bear in mind that this 
motion, the disappearance of which causes relative equilibra- 
tion, is not lost but simply transferred ; and by continual 
division and subdivision finally reduced to ethereal undula- 
tions and radiated through space. Whether the sensible 
motion dissipated during relative equilibration, is directly 
transformed into insensible motion, as happens in the case of 
the Sun; or whether, as in the sensible motions going on 
around us, it is directly transformed into smaller sensible 
motions, and these into still smaller, until they become in- 
sensible, matters not. In every instance the ultimate result 



474 



EQUILIBRATION. 



is, that whatever motion of masses is lost, re-appears as 
molecular motion pervading space. Thus the questions we 
have to consider, are — Whether after the completion of all 
the relative equilibrations above contemplated as bringing 
Evolution to a close, there remain any further equilibrations 
to be effected ? — Whether there are any other motions of 
masses that must eventually be transformed into molecular 
motion ? — And if there are such other motions, what must 
be the consequence when the molecular motion generated by 
their transformation, is added to that which already exists ? 

To the first of these questions the answer is, that there do 
remain motions which are undiminished by all the relative 
equilibrations thus far considered ; namely, the motions of 
translation possessed by those vast masses of incandescent 
matter called stars — masses now known to be suns that are 
in all probability, like our own, surrounded by circling 
groups of planets. The belief that the stars are literally 
fixed, has long since been exploded : observation has proved 
many of them to have sensible proper motions. Moreover, it 
has been ascertained by measurement, that in relation to the 
stars nearest to us, our own star is moving at the rate of 
about half a million miles per day ; and if, as is admitted to 
be not improbable by sundry astronomers, our own star is 
traversing space in the same direction with adjacent stars, 
its absolute velocity may be, and most likely is, immensely 
greater than this. Now no such changes as those taking 
place within the Solar System, even when carried to the 
extent of integrating the whole of its matter into one mass, 
and diffusing all its relative movements in an insensible 
form through space, can affect these sidereal movements. 
Hence, there appears no alternative but to infer, that these 
sidereal movements must remain to be equilibrated by some 
subsequent process. 

The next question that arises, if we venture to inquire the 
probable nature of this process, is — To what law do sidereal 
motions conform ? And to this question Astronomy replies — 



EQUILIBRATION. 475 

the law of gravitation. The relative motions of binary stars 
have proved this. When it was discovered that certain of 
the double stars are not optically double but physically 
double, and move round each other, it was at once suspected 
that their revolutions might be regulated by a mutual attrac- 
tion like that which regulates the revolutions of planets 
and satellites. The requisite measurements having been 
from time to time made, the periodic times of sundry 
binary stars were calculated on this assumption ; and the 
subsequent performances of their revolutions in the pre- 
dicted periods, have completely verified the assumption. 
If, then, it is demonstrated that these remote bodies are 
centres of gravitation — if we infer that all other stars are 
centres of gravitation, as we may fairly do — and if we draw 
the unavoidable corollary, that this gravitative force which so 
conspicuously affects stars that are comparatively near each 
other, must affect remote stars ; we find ourselves led to the 
conclusion that all the members of our Sidereal System gravi- 
tate, individually and as an aggregate. 

But if these widely- dispersed moving masses mutually 
gravitate, what must happen ? There appears but one ten- 
able answer. Even supposing they were all absolutely equal 
in weight, and arranged into an annulus with absolute regu- 
larity, and endowed with exactly the amounts of centrifugal 
force required to prevent nearer approach to their common 
centre of gravity ; the condition would still be one which the 
slightest disturbing force would destroy. Much more then 
are we driven to the inference, that our actual Sidereal System 
cannot preserve its present arrangement : the irregularities 
of its distribution being such as to render even a temporary 
moving equilibrium impossible. If the stars are so many 
centres of an attractive force that varies inversely as the 
square of the distance, there appears to be no escape from the 
conclusion, that the structure of our galaxy must be under- 
going change ; and must continue to undergo change. 

Thus, in the absence of tenable alternatives, we are brought 



476 EQUILIBRATION. 

to the positions : — 1, that the stars are in motion; — 2, that they 
move in conformity with the law of gravitation ; — 3, that, 
distributed as they are, they cannot move in conformity 
with the law of gravitation, without undergoing change of 
arrangement. If now we permit ourselves to take a further 
step, and ask the nature of this change of arrangement, we 
find ourselves obliged to infer a progressive concentration. 
Whether we do or do not suppose the clustering which is 
now visible, to have been caused by mutual gravitation acting 
throughout past eras, as the hypothesis of Evolution implies, 
we are equally compelled to conclude that this clustering 
must increase throughout future eras. Stars at present 
dispersed, must become locally aggregated ; existing ag- 
gregations, at the same time that they are enlarged by the 
drawing in of adjacent stars, must grow more dense; and 
aggregations must coalesce with each other : each greater 
degree of concentration augmenting the force by which 
further concentration is produced. 

And now what must be the limit of this concentration? 
The mutual attraction of two individual stars, when it so far 
predominates over other attractions as to cause approxima- 
tion, almost certainly ends in the formation of a binary 
star ; since the motions generated by other attractions, pre- 
vent the two stars from moving in straight lines to their 
common centre of gravity. Between small clusters, too, 
having also certain proper motions as clusters, mutual at- 
traction may lead, not to complete union, but to the forma- 
tion of binary clusters. As the process continues however, 
and the clusters become larger, it seems clear that they must 
move more directly towards each other, thus forming clusters 
of increasing density ; and that eventually all clusters must 
unite into one comparatively close aggregation. While, 
therefore, during the earlier stages of concentration, the 
probabilities are immense against the actual contact of these 
mutually- gravitating masses ; it is tolerably manifest, that as 
the concentration increases, collision must become probable, 






EQUILIBRATION. 477 



and ultimately certain. This is an inference not lacking the 
support of high authority. Sir John Herschel, treating of 
those numerous and variously-aggregated clusters of stars 
revealed by the telescope, and citing with apparent approval 
his father's opinion, that the more diffused and irregular of 
these, are " globular clusters in a less advanced state of con- 
densation ;" subsequently remarks, that "among a crowd of 
solid bodies of whatever size, animated by independent and 
partially opposing impulses, motions opposite to each other 
must produce collision, destruction of velocity, and subsidence 
or near approach towards the centre of preponderant attrac- 
tion ; while those which conspire, or which remain outstand- 
ing after such conflicts, must ultimately give rise to circula- 
tion of a permanent character." Now what is here alleged 
of these minor sidereal aggregations, cannot be denied of the 
large aggregations ; and thus the above- described process of 
concentration, appears certain to bring about an increasingly- 
frequent integration of masses. 

We have next to consider the consequences of the accom- 
panying loss of velocity. The sensible motion which disap- 
pears, cannot be destroyed; but must be transformed into 
insensible motion. What will be the effect of this insensible 
motion ? Some approach to a conception of it, will be made 
by considering what would happen were the comparatively in- 
significant motion of our planet thus transformed. In his es- 
say on " The Inter-action of Natural Forces," Prof. Helmholtz 
states the thermal equivalent of the Earth's movement 
through space ; as calculated on the now received datum of 
Mr. Joule. " If our Earth," he says, " were by a sudden 
shock brought to rest in her orbit, — which is not to be feared 
in the existing arrangement of our system — by such a shock 
a quantity of heat would be generated equal to that pro- 
duced by the combustion of fourteen such Earths of solid 
coal. Making the most unfavourable assumption as to its 
capacity for heat, that is, placing it equal to that of water, 
the mass of the Earth would thereby be heated 11,200 de- 




478 EQUILIBRATION. 

grees ; it would therefore be quite fused, and for the most 
part reduced to vapour. If then the Earth, after having 
been thus brought to rest, should fall into the Sun, which of 
course would be the case, the quantity of heat developed by 
the shock would be 400 times greater." Now so relatively 
small a momentum as that acquired by the Earth in falling 
through 95,000,000 of miles to the Sun, being equivalent to 
a molecular motion such as would reduce the Earth to gases 
of extreme rarity ; what must be the molecular motion gener- 
ated by the mutually- arrested momenta of two stars, that 
have moved to their common centre of gravity through spaces 
immeasurably greater ? There seems no alternative but to 
conclude, that this molecular motion must be so great, as to 
reduce the matter of the stars to an almost inconceivable te- 
nuity — a tenuity like that which we ascribe to nebular mat- 
ter. Such being the immediate effect of the integra- 
tion of any two stars in a concentrating aggregate, what must 
be the ulterior effect on the aggregate as a whole ? Sir John 
Herschel, in the passage above quoted, describing the collisions 
that must arise in a mutually- gravitating group of stars, adds 
that those stars " which remain outstanding after such con- 
flicts, must ultimately give rise to circulation of a permanent 
character. " The problem, however, is here dealt with purely 
as a mechanical one : the assumption being, that the mutu- 
ally-arrested masses will continue as masses — an assumption 
to which no objection was apparent at the time when Sir 
John Herschel wrote this passage ; since the doctrine of the 
correlation of forces was not then recognized. But obliged 
as we now are to conclude, that stars moving at the high 
velocities acquired during concentration, will, by mutual 
arrest, be dissipated into gases of great tenuity, the problem 
becomes different ; and a different inference appears unavoid- 
able. For the diffused matter produced by such conflicts, 
must form a resisting medium, occupying that central region 
of the aggregate through which its members from time to 
time pass in describing their orbits — a resisting medium 



EQUILIBRATION. 479 

which they cannot move through without having their ve- 
locities diminished. Every further such collision, by aug- 
menting this resisting medium, and making the losses of 
velocity greater, must further aid in preventing the estab- 
lishment of that equilibrium which would else arise ; and so 
must conspire to produce more frequent collisions. And the 
nebulous matter thus formed, presently enveloping and ex- 
tending beyond the whole aggregate, must, by continuing to 
shorten their gyrations, entail an increasingly- active integra- 
tion and re- active disintegration of the moving masses ; until 
they are all finally dissipated. This, indeed, is the 

conclusion which, leaving out all consideration of the pro- 
cess gone through, presents itself as a simple deduction from 
the persistence of force. If the stars have been, and still 
are, concentrating however indirectly on their common centre 
of gravity, and must eventually reach it ; it is a corollary 
from the persistence of force, that the quantities of motion 
they have severally acquired, must suffice to carry them away 
from the common centre of gravity to those remote regions 
whence they originally began to move towards it. And since, 
by the conditions of the case, they cannot return to these 
remote regions in the shape of concrete masses, they must 
return in the shape of diffused masses. Action and reaction 
being equal and opposite, the momentum producing disper- 
sion, must be as great as the momentum acquired by aggre- 
gation ; and being spread over the same quantity of matter, 
must cause an equivalent distribution through space, what- 
ever be the form of the matter. One condition, 
however, essential to the literal fulfilment of this result, must 
be specified ; namely, that the quantity of molecular motion 
produced and radiated into space by each star in the course 
of its formation from diffused matter, shall be compensated 
by an equal quantity of molecular motion radiated from other 
parts of space into the space which our Sidereal System oc- 
cupies. In other words, if we set out with that amount of 
molecular motion implied by the existence of the matter of 



480 EQUILIBRATION. 

our Sidereal System in a nebulous form ; then it follows from 
the persistence of force, that if this matter undergoes the re- 
distribution constituting Evolution, the quantity of molecu- 
lar motion given out during the integration of each mass, 
plus the quantity of molecular motion given out during the 
integration of all the masses, must suffi.ce again to reduce it 
to the same nebulous form. Here indeed we arrive at 

an impassable limit to our reasonings ; since we cannot know 
whether this condition is or is not fulfilled. On the hypo- 
thesis of an unlimited space, containing, at certain intervals, 
Sidereal Systems like our own, it may be that the quantity of 
molecular motion radiated into the region occupied by our 
Sidereal System, is equal to that which our Sidereal System 
radiates ; in which case the quantity of motion possessed by 
it, remaining undiminished, our Sidereal System may continue 
during unlimited time, to repeat this alternate concentration 
and diffusion. But if, on the other hand, throughout bound- 
less space there exist no other Sidereal Systems subject to like 
changes, or if such other Sidereal Systems exist at more than 
a certain average distance from each other ; then it seems an 
unavoidable conclusion that the quantity of motion possessed, 
must diminish by radiation into unoccupied space ; and that 
so, on each successive resumption of the nebulous form, the 
matter of our Sidereal System will occupy a less space ; 
until at the end of an infinite time it reaches either a state 
in which its concentrations and diffusions are relatively small, 
or a state of complete aggregation and rest. Since, however, 
we have no evidence showing the existence or non-existence 
of Sidereal Systems throughout remote space ; and since, even 
had we such evidence, a legitimate conclusion could not be 
drawn from premises of which one element (unlimited space) 
is inconceivable ; we must be for ever without answer to this 
transcendent question. All we can say is, that so far as the 
data enable us to judge, the integration of our Sidereal Sys- 
tem will be followed by disintegration ; that such integration 
and disintegration will be repeated ; and that, for anything 



EQUILIBRATION. 481 

we know to the contrary, the alternation of them may con- 
tinue without limit. 

But leaving this ultimate insoluble problem, and confining 
ourselves to the proximate and not necessarily insoluble one, 
we find reason for thinking that after the completion of those 
various equilibrations whieh bring to a close all the forms of 
Evolution we have contemplated, there must still continue 
an equilibration of a far wider kind. When that integration 
everywhere in progress throughout our Solar System, has 
reached its climax, there will remain to be effected the im- 
measurably greater integration of our Solar System, with all 
other such systems. As in those minor forms now going on 
around us, this integration with its concomitant equilibra- 
tion, involves the change of aggregate motion into diffused 
motion ; so in those vaster forms hereafter to be carried out, 
there must similarly be gained in molecular motion what i« 
lost in the motion of masses ; and the inevitable transforma- 
tion of this motion of masses into molecular motion, cannot 
take place without reducing the masses to a nebulous form. 
Thus we seem led to the conclusion that the entire process of 
things, as displayed in the aggregate of the visible Universe, 
is analogous to the entire process of things as displayed in 
the smallest aggregates. Where, as in organic bodies, the whole 
series of changes constituting Evolution can be traced, we 
saw that, dynamically considered, Evolution is a change from 
molecular motion to the motion of masses ; and this change, 
becoming more active during the ascending phase of Evolu- 
tion while the masses increase in bulk and heterogeneity, 
eventually begins to get less active ; until, passing through 
stages in which the integration grows greater, and the equi- 
librium more definite, it finally ceases ; whereupon there 
arises, by an ulterior process, an increase of molecular mo- 
tion, ending in the more or less complete dissolution of the 
aggregate. And here we find reason to believe that, along 
with each of the thousands of similar ones dispersed through 
the heavens, our Solar System, after passing through stages 
22 









482 EQUILIBRATION. 

during which the motion of masses is produced at the ex- 
pense of -lost molecular motion, and during which there goes 
on an increasingly active differentiation and integration, 
arrives at a climax whence these changes, beginning to decline 
in activity, slowly bring about that complete integration and 
equilibration which in other cases we call death ; and that 
there afterwards comes a time, when the still-remaining mo- 
tions of masses are transformed into a molecular motion which 
causes dissolution of the masses. Motion as well as Matter 
being fixed in quantity, it would seem that the change in the 
distribution of Matter which Motion effects, coming to a limit 
in whichever direction it is carried, the indestructible Motion 
thereupon necessitates a reverse distribution. Apparently, 
' the universally- coexistent forces of attraction and repulsion, 
which, as we have seen, necessitate rhythm in all minor 
changes throughout the Universe, also necessitate rhythm 
in the totality of its changes — produce now an immeasure- 
able period during which the attractive forces predominating, 
cause universal concentration, and then an immeasurable 
period during which the repulsive forces predominating, 
cause universal diffusion — alternate eras of Evolution and 
Dissolution. And thus there is suggested the conception 
of a past during which there have been successive Evo- 
lutions similar to that which is now going on ; and a 
future during which successive other such Evolutions may 
go on. 

Let none suppose, however, that this is to be taken as any- 
thing more than a speculation. In dealing with times and 
spaces and forces so immensely transcending those of which 
we have definite experience, we are in danger of passing the 
limits to human intelligence. Though these times and 
spaces and forces cannot literally be classed as infinite ; yet 
they are so utterly beyond the possibility of definite concep- 
tion, as to be almost equally unthinkable with the infinite. 
What has been above said, should therefore be regarded sim- 
ply as a possible answer to a possible doubt. When, push- 



EQUILIBRATION 483 

ing to its extreme the argument that Evolution must come 
to a close in complete equilibrium or rest, the reader suggests 
that for aught which appears to the contrary, the Universal 
Death thus implied will continue indefinitely ; it is legitim- 
ate to point out how, on carrying the argument still further, 
we are led to infer a subsequent Universal Life. But while 
this last inference may fitly be accepted as a demurrer to the 
first, it would be unwise to accept it in any more positive 
sense. 

§ 137. Returning from this parenthetical discussion, con- 
cerning the probable or possible state of things that may 
arise after Evolution has run its course ; and confining our- 
selves to the changes constituting Evolution, with which 
alone we are immediately concerned ; we have now to inquire 
whether the cessation of these changes, in common with all 
their transitional characteristics, admits of a priori proof. It 
will soon become apparent that equilibration, not less than 
the preceding general principles, is deducible from the per- 
sistence of force. 

"We have seen (§ 85) that phenomena are interpretable 
only as the results of universally- coexistent forces of attrac- 
tion and repulsion. These universally- coexistent forces of at- 
traction and repulsion, are, indeed, the complementary aspects 
of that absolutely persistent force which is the ultimate datum 
of consciousness. Just in the same way that the equality of 
action and re-action is a corollary from the persistence of 
force, since their inequality would imply the disappearance 
of the differential force into nothing, or its appearance out of 
nothing ; so, we cannot become conscious of an attractive 
force without becoming simultaneously conscious of an equal 
and opposite repulsive force. For every experience of a 
muscular tension, (under which form alone we can immedi- 
ately know an attractive force,) presupposes an equivalent 
resistance — a resistance shown in the counter-balancing pres- 
sure of the body against neighbouring objects, or in that 







484 EQUILIBRATION. 

absorption of force which gives motion to the body, or in 
both — a resistance which we cannot-, conceive as other than 
equal to the tension, without conceiving force to have either 
appeared or disappeared, and so denying the persistence of 
force. And from this necessary correlation, results our ina- 
bility, before pointed out, of interpreting any phenomena 
save in terms of these correlatives — an inability shown alike 
in the compulsion we are under to think of the statical forces 
which tangible matter displays, as due to the attraction and 
repulsion of its atoms, and in the compulsion we are under to 
think of dynamical forces exercised through space, by regard- 
ing space as filled with atoms similarly endowed. Thus from 
the existence of a force that is for ever unchangeable in quan- 
tity, there follows, as a necessary corollary, the co-extensive 
existence of these opposite forms of force — forms under 
which the conditions of our consciousness oblige us to repre- 
sent that absolute force which transcends our knowledge. 

But the forces of attraction and repulsion being univer- 
sally co-existent, it follows, as before shown, that all motion 
is motion under resistance. Units of matter, solid, liquid, 
aeriform, or ethereal, filling the space which any moving 
body traverses, offer to such body the resistance consequent 
on their cohesion, or their inertia, or both. In other words, 
the denser or rarer medium which occupies the places from 
moment to moment passed through by such moving body, 
having to be expelled from them, as much motion is ab- 
stracted from the moving body as is given to the medium in 
expelling it from these places. This being the condition 
under which all motion occurs, two corollaries result. The 
first is, that the deductions perpetually made by the com- 
munication of motion to the resisting medium, cannot but 
bring the motion of the body to an end in a longer or shorter 
time. The second is, that the motion of the body cannot 
cease 'until these deductions destroy it. In other words, 
movement must continue till equilibration takes place ; and 
equilibration must eventually take place. Both these are 



EQUILIBRATION. 485 

manifest deductions from the persistence of force. To say- 
that the whole or part of a body's motion can disappear, save 
by transfer to something which resists its motion, is to say 
that the whole or part of its motion can disappear without 
effect; which is to deny the persistence of force. Con- 
versely, to say that the medium traversed can be moved out of 
the body's path, without deducting from the body's motion, 
is to say that motion of the medium can arise out of no- 
thing ; which is to deny the persistence of force. Hence 
this primordial truth is our immediate warrant for the con- 
clusions, that the changes -which Evolution presents, cannot 
end until equilibrium is reached ; and that equilibrium must 
at last be reached. 

Equally necessary, because equally deducible from this 
same truth that transcends proof, are the foregoing proposi- 
tions respecting the establishment and maintenance of mov- 
ing equilibria, under their several aspects. It follows from 
the persistence of force, that the various motions possessed 
by any aggregate, either as a whole or among its parts, must 
be severally dissipated by the resistances they severally en- 
counter ; and that thus, such of them as are least in amount, 
or meet with greatest opposition, or both, will be brought to 
a close while the others continue. Hence in every diversely 
moving aggregate, there results a comparatively early dissi- 
pation of motions which are smaller and much resisted ; fol- 
lowed by long-continuance of the larger and less-resisted 
motions ; and so there arise dependent and independent 
moving equilibria. Hence also may be inferred the tend- 
ency to conservation of such moving equilibria ; since, 
whenever the new motion given to the parts of a moving 
equilibrium by a disturbing force, is not of such kind and 
amount that it cannot be dissipated before the pre-existing 
motions (in which case it brings the moving equilibrium to 
an end) it must be of such kind and amount that it can be 
dissipated before the pre-existing motions (in which case the 
moving equilibrium is re-established). 



486 EQUILIBRATION. 

Thus from the persistence of force follow, not only the 
various direct and indirect equilibrations going on around, 
together with that cosmical equilibration which brings Evo- 
lution under all its forms to a close ; but also those less 
manifest equilibrations shown in the re- adjustments of 
moving equilibria that have been disturbed. By this 
ultimate principle is proveable the tendency of every 
organism, disordered by some unusual influence, to return to 
a balanced state. To it also may be traced the capacity, 
possessed in a slight degree by individuals, and in a greater 
degree by species, of becoming adapted to new circumstances. 
And not less does it afford a basis for the inference, that 
there is a gradual advance towards harmony between man's 
mental nature and the conditions of his existence. After 
finding that from it are deducible the various characteristics 
of Evolution, we finally draw from it a warrant for the 
belief, that Evolution can end only in the establishment of 
the greatest perfection and the most complete happiness. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

SUMMAEY AND CONCLUSION. 

§ 138. In the chapter on " Laws in general," after de- 
lineating the progress of mankind in recognizing uniformi- 
ties of relation among surrounding phenomena — after show- 
ing how the actual succession in the establishment of different 
orders of co-existences and sequences, corresponds with the 
succession deducible a priori from the conditions to human 
knowledge — after showing how, by the ever-multiplying ex- 
periences of constant connections among phenomena, there 
has been gradually generated the conception of universal 
conformity to law ; it was suggested that this conception 
will become still clearer, when it is perceived that there 
are laws of wider generality than any of those at present 
accepted. 

The existence of such more general laws, is, indeed, almost 
implied by the ensemble of the facts set forth in the above- 
named chapter ; since they make it apparent, that the process 
hitherto carried on, of bringing phenomena under fewer and 
wider laws, has not ceased, but is advancing with increasing 
rapidity. Apart, however, from evidence of this kind, the 
man of science, hourly impressed with new proof of uni- 
formity in the relations of things, until the conception of 
uniformity has become with him a necessity of thought, 
tacitly entertains the conclusion that the minor uniformities 
which Science has thus far established, will eventually be 



488 SUMMAEY ANTf CONCLUSION". 

merged in uniformities that are universal. Taught as he 
is by every observation and experiment, to regard phe- 
nomena as manifestations of Force ; and learning as he does 
to contemplate Force as unchangeable in amount ; there tends 
to grow up in him a belief in unchangeable laws common to 
Force under all its manifestations. Though he may not have 
formulated it to himself, he is prepared to recognize the 
truth, that, being fixed in quantity, fixed in its two ultimate 
modes of presentation (Matter and Motion), and fixed in the 
conditions under which it is presented (Time and Space) ; 
Force must have certain equally fixed laws of action, com- 
mon to all the changes it produces. 

Hence to the classes who alone are likely to read these 
pages, the hypothesis of a fundamental unity, extending 
from the simplest inorganic actions up to the most com- 
plex associations of thought and the most involved social 
processes, will have an a priori probability. All things being 
recognized as having one source, will be expected to exhibit 
one method. Even in the absence of a clue to uniformities 
co-extensive with all modes of Force, as the mathematical 
uniformities are co- extensive with Space and Time, it will be 
inferred that such uniformities exist. And thus a certain 
presumption will result in favour of any formula, of a gene- 
rality great enough to include concrete phenomena of every 
order. 

§ 139. In the chapters on the " Law of Evolution," there 
was set forth a principle, which, so far as accessible evidence 
enables us to judge, possesses this universality. The order 
of material changes, first perceived to have certain constant 
characteristics in cases where it could be readily traced from 
beginning to end, we found to have these same characteristics 
in cases where it could be less readily traced ; and we saw 
numerous indications that these same characteristics were 
displayed during past changes of which we have no direct 
knowledge. The transformation of the homogeneous into 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 489 

the heterogeneous, first observed by naturalists to be ex- 
hibited during the development of every plant and animal, 
proved to be also exhibited during the development of every 
society ; both in its political and industrial organization, and 
in all the products of social life, — language, science, art, 
and literature. From the disclosures of geology, we drew 
adequate support for the conclusion, that in the structure of 
the Earth there has similarly been a progress from uni- 
formity, through ever-increasing degrees of multiformity, to 
the complex state which we now see. And on the assump- 
tion of that nebular origin to which so many facts point, we 
inferred that a like transition from unity to variety of dis- 
tribution, must have been undergone by our Solar System ; 
as well as by that vast assemblage of such systems constitut- 
ing the visible Universe. This definition of the meta- 
morphosis, first asserted by physiologists of organic aggregates 
only, but which we thus found reason to think, holds of all 
other aggregates, proved on further inquiry to be too wide. 
Its undue width was shown to arise from the omission of 
certain other characteristics, that are, not less than the fore- 
going one, displayed throughout all kinds of Evolution. We 
saw that simultaneously with the change from homogeneity 
to heterogeneity, there takes place a change from indefinite- 
ness of arrangement to definiteness of arrangement — a 
change everywhere equally traceable with that which it ac- 
companies. Further consideration made it apparent, that 
the increasing definiteness thus manifested along with in- 
creasing heterogeneity, necessarily results from increasing 
integration of the parts severally rendered unlike. And 
thus we finally reached the conclusion, that there has been 
going on throughout an immeasurable past, is still going on, 
and will continue to go on, an advance from a diffused, in- 
determinate, and uniform distribution of Matter, to a concen- 
trated, determinate, and multiform distribution of it. 

At a subsequent stage of our inquiry, we discovered that 
this progressive change in the arrangement of Matter, is ac- 
22* 



490 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 

companied by a parallel change in the arrangement of 
Motion — that every increase in the structural complexity of 
things, involves a corresponding increase in their functional 
complexity. It was shown that along with the integration -of 
molecules into masses, there arises an integration of mole- 
cular motion into the motion of masses ; and that as fast as 
there results variety in the sizes and forms of aggregates and 
their relations to incident forces, there also results variety in 
their movements. Whence it became manifest, that the 
general process of things is from a confused simplicity to an 
orderly complexity, in the distribution of both Matter and 
Motion. 

It was pointed out, however, that though this species of 
transformation is universal, in the sense of holding through- 
out all classes of phenomena, it is not universal in the sense 
of being continued without limit in all classes of phenomena. 
Those aggregates which exhibit the entire change from uni- 
formity to multiformity of structure and function, in compar- 
atively short periods, eventually show us a reverse set of 
changes : Evolution is followed by Dissolution. The differen- 
tiations and integrations of Matter and Motion, finally reach 
a degree which the conditions do not allow them to pass ; 
and there then sets in a process of disintegration and assimi- 
lation, of both the parts and the movements that were before 
growing more united and more distinct. 

But under one or the other of- these processes, all observ- 
able modifications in the arrangement of things may be 
classed. Every change comes under the head of integration 
or disintegration, material or dynamical ; or under the head 
of differentiation or assimilation, material or dynamical ; or 
under both. Each inorganic mass is either undergoing in- 
crease by the combination with it of surrounding elements 
for which its parts have affinity ; or undergoing decrease by 
the solvent and abraiding action of surrounding elements ; or 
both one and the other in varied succession and combination. 
By perpetual additions and losses of heat, it is having its 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 491 

parts temporarily differentiated from each other, or tem- 
porarily assimilated to each other, in molecular state. And 
through the actions of divers agents, it is also undergoing 
certain permanent molecular re-arrangements ; rendering it 
either more uniform or more multiform in structure. These 
opposite kinds of change, thus vaguely typified in every 
surrounding fragment of matter, are displayed in all aggre- 
gates with increasing distinctness in proportion as the con- 
ditions essential to re-arrangement of parts are fulfilled. So 
that universally, the process of things is either in the one 
direction or the other. There is in all cases going on that 
ever- complicating distribution of Matter and Motion which 
we call Evolution ; save in those cases where it has been 
brought to a close and reversed by what we call Dissolution. 

§ 140. Whether this omnipresent metamorphosis admits 
of interpretation, was the inquiry on which we next entered. 
Eecognizing the changes thus formulated as consisting in 
Motions of Matter that are produced by Force, we saw that 
if they are interpretable at all, it must be by the afliliation 
of them on certain ultimate laws of Matter, Motion, and 
Force. We therefore proceeded to inquire what these ulti- 
mate laws are. 

We first contemplated under its leading aspects, the prin- 
ciple of correlation and equivalence among forces. The 
genesis of sensible motion by insensible motion, and of insen- 
sible motion by sensible motion, as well as the like reciprocal 
production of those forms of insensible motion which consti- 
tute Light, Heat, Electricity, Magnetism, and Chemical 
Action, was shown to be a now accepted doctrine, that in- 
volves certain corollaries respecting the processes everywhere 
going on around us. Setting out with the probability that 
the insensible motion radiated by the Sun, is the transformed 
product of the sensible motion lost during the progressive 
concentration of the solar mass ; we saw that by this insen- 
sible motion, are in turn produced the various kinds of sen- 



492 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 

sible motion on the Earth's surface. Besides the inorganic 
terrestrial changes, we found that the changes constituting 
organic life are thus originated. "We were obliged to con- 
clude that within this category, come the vital phenomena 
classed as mental, as well as those classed as physical. And 
it appeared inevitably to follow that of social changes, too, 
the like must be said. "We next saw that phenomena 

being cognizable by us only as products of Force, manifested 
under the two-fold form of attraction and repulsion, there 
results the general law that all Motion must occur in the 
direction of least resistance, or in the direction of greatest 
traction, or in the direction of their resultant. It was 
pointed out that this law is every instant illustrated in the 
movements of the celestial bodies. The innumerable trans- 
positions of matter, gaseous, liquid, and solid, going on over 
the Earth's surface, were shown to conform to it. Evidence 
was given that this same ultimate principle of motion under- 
lies the structural and functional changes of organisms. 
Throughout the succession of those nervous actions which 
constitute thought and feeling, as also in the discharge of 
feeling into action, we no less found this principle conspicu- 
ous. Nor did we discover any exception to it in the 
movements, temporary and permanent, that go on in 
societies. From the universal coexistence of opposing 

forces, there also resulted the rhythm of motion. It was 
shown that this is displayed from the infinitesimal vibra- 
tions of molecules up to the enormous revolutions and 
gyrations of planets ; that it is traceable throughout all 
meteorologic and geologic changes ; that the functions of every 
organic body exemplify it in various forms ; that mental 
activities too, intellectual and emotional, exhibit periodicities 
of sundry kinds ; and that actions and reactions illustrating 
this law under a still more complex form, pervade social 
processes. 

Such being the principles to which conform all changes 
produced by Force on the distribution of Matter, and all 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 493 

changes re-actively produced by Matter on the distribution 
of Force, we proceeded to inquire what must be the conse- 
quent nature of any re-distributions produced : haying first 
noted the limiting conditions between which such re-distri- 
butions are possible, and the medium conditions that are most 
favourable to them. The first conclusion arrived at, 

was, that any finite homogeneous aggregate must inevitably 
lose its homogeneity, through the unequal exposure of its 
parts to incident forces. We observed how this was shown 
in surrounding things, by the habitual establishment of dif- 
ferences between inner and outer parts, and parts otherwise 
dissimilarly circumstanced. It was pointed out that the 
production of diversities of structure by forces acting under 
diverse conditions, has been illustrated in astronomic evolu- 
tion, supposing such evolution to have taken place ; and 
that a like connection of cause and effect is seen in the large 
and small modifications undergone by our globe. In the 
early changes of organic germs, we discovered further evi- 
dence that unlikenesses of structure follow unlikenesses of 
relations to surrounding agencies — evidence enforced by the 
tendency of the differently-placed members of each species to 
diverge into varieties. We found that the principle is also 
conformed to in the establishment of distinctions among our 
ideas ; and that the contrasts, political and industrial, that 
arise between the parts of societies are no less in harmony 
with it. The instability of the homogeneous thus caused, 
and thus everywhere exemplified, we also saw must hold of 
the unlike parts into which any uniform whole lapses ; and 
that so the less heterogeneous must tend continually to be- 
come more heterogeneous — an inference which we also found 
to be everywhere confirmed by fact. Carrying a step 

further our inquiry into these actions and reactions between 
Force and Matter, there was disclosed a secondary cause of 
increasing multiformity. Every differentiated part becomes, 
we found, a parent of further differentiations ; not only in 
the sense that it must lose its own homogeneity in hetero- 



494 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 

geneity, but also in the sense that it must, in growing unlike 
other parts, become a centre of unlike reactions on incident 
forces ; and by so adding to the diversity of forces at work, 
must add to the diversity of effects produced. This multi- 
plication of effects, likewise proved to be manifest throughout 
all Nature. That forces modified in kind and direction by 
every part of every aggregate, are gradually expended in 
working changes that grow more numerous and more varied 
as the forces are subdivided, is shown in the actions and re- 
actions going on throughout the Solar System, in the never- 
ceasing geologic complications, in the involved symptoms 
produced in organisms by disturbing influences, in the many 
thoughts and feelings generated by single impressions, and 
in the ever-ramifying results of each new agency brought to 
bear on a society. To which add the corollary, confirmed 
by abundant facts, that the multiplication of effects must in- 
crease in a geometrical progression, as the heterogeneity 
increases. Completely to interpret the structural 

changes constituting Evolution, there remained to assign a 
reason for that increasingly- distinct demarcation of parts, 
which accompanies the production of differences between 
parts. This reason we discovered to be, the segregation of 
mixed units under the action of forces capable of moving 
them. We saw that when the parts of an aggregate have 
been made qualitatively unlike by unlike incident forces — 
that is, when they have become contrasted in the natures of 
their component units ; there necessarily arises a tendency 
to separation of the dissimilar orders of units from each 
other, and to aggregation of those units which are similar. 
This cause of the integration that accompanies differentia- 
tion, turned out to be likewise exemplified by all kinds of 
Evolution — by the formation of celestial bodies, by the 
moulding of the Earth's crust, by organic modifications, by 
the establishment of mental distinctions, by- the genesis of 
social divisions. And we inferred, what we may every- 
where see, that the segregation thus produced goes on so 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 495 

long as there remains a possibility of making it more com- 
plete. At length, to the query whether the processes 
thus traced out have any limit, there came the answer that 
they must end in equilibration. That continual division and 
subdivision of forces, which is instrumental in changing the 
uniform into the multiform and the multiform into the more 
multiform, we saw to be at the same time a process by which 
force is perpetually dissipated ; and that dissipation, continu- 
ing as long as there remains any force unbalanced by an op- 
posing force, must end in rest. It was shown that when, as 
happens with aggregates of various orders, a number of 
movements are going on in combination, the earlier disper- 
sion of the smaller and more resisted movements, entails the 
establishment of different kinds of moving equilibria : form- 
ing transitional stages on the way to complete equilibrium. 
And further inquiry made it apparent that for the same 
reason, these moving equilibria have a certain self- conserving 
power ; shown in the neutralization of perturbations, and the 
adjustment to new conditions. This general principle, like 
the preceding ones, proved to be traceable throughout all 
forms of Evolution — astronomic, geologic, biologic, mental 
and social. And our concluding inference was, that the 
penultimate stage of this process, in which the extremes t 
degree of multiformity and completest form of moving 
equilibrium is established, must be one implying the highest 
conceivable state of humanity. 

Thus it became apparent that this transformation of an 
indefinite, incoherent homogeneity into a definite coherent 
heterogeneity, which goes on everywhere until it brings 
about a reverse transformation, is consequent on certain 
simple laws of force. Given those universal modes of action 
which are from moment to moment illustrated in the com- 
monest changes around us, and it follows that there cannot 
but result the observed metamorphosis of an indeterminate 
uniformity into a determinate multiformity. 



496 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 

§ 141. Finally, we have asked whether, for these universal 
modes of action, any common cause is assignable — whether 
these wide truths are dependent on any single widest truth. 
And to this question we found a positive answer. These 
several principles are corollaries from that primordial prin- 
ciple which transcends human intelligence by underlying it. 

In the first part of this work it was shown, by analysis of 
both our religious and our scientific ideas, that while know- 
ledge of the cause which produces effects on our conscious- 
ness is impossible, the existence of a cause for these effects is 
a datum of consciousness. Though Being is cognizable by 
us only under limits of Time and Space, yet Being without 
limits of Time and Space was proved to be the indefinite 
cognition forming the necessary basis of our definite cogni- 
tions. We saw that the belief in an Omnipresent Power of 
which no commencement or cessation can be conceived, is 
that fundamental element in Religion which survives all its 
changes of form. We saw that all Philosophies avowedly or 
tacitly recognize this same ultimate truth : — that while the 
Relativist rightly repudiates those definite assertions which 
the Absolutist makes respecting real existence, he is yet at 
last compelled to unite with him in predicating real existence. 
And this inexpugnable consciousness in which Religion and 
Philosophy are at one with Common Sense, proved to be like- 
wise that on which all exact Science is founded. We found 
that subjective Science can give no account of those condi- 
tioned modes of existence which constitute consciousness, 
without postulating unconditioned existence. And we found 
that objective Science can give no account of the existence 
which we know as external, without regarding its changes 
of form as manifestations of an existence that continues con- 
stant under all forms. Absolute Being, or Being which 
persists without beginning or end, was shown to be the 
common datum of all human thought ; for the sufficient 
reason that the consciousness of it cannot be suppressed, 
without the suppression of consciousness itself. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 497 

From this truth which transcends proof, we have seen that 
the general principles above set down, are deducible. That the 
power or force manifested to us in all phenomena, continues 
unaltered in quantity, however its mode of manifestation be 
altered, is a proposition in which these several propositions 
are involved. It was shown that on the Persistence of Force 
are based the demonstrations that Matter is indestructible 
and Motion continuous. When its proofs were examined, 
the correlation and equivalence of forces was found to follow 
from the Persistence of Force. The necessity we are under 
of conceiving Force under the two-fold form of attraction 
and repulsion, turns out to be but an implication of the 
necessity we are under of conceiving Force as persistent. 
On the Persistence of Force, we saw that the law of direction 
of Motion is dependent ; and from it also we saw that the 
rhythm of Motion necessarily results. Passing to those 
changes of distribution which, by the Motion it generates, 
Force produces in Matter, it was pointed out that from the 
Persistence of Force are severally deducible, the instability of 
the homogeneous, the multiplication of effects, and that 
increasing definiteness of structure to which continuous 
differentiation and integration leads. And lastly we saw 
that Force being persistent, Evolution cannot cease until 
equilibrium is reached ; and that equilibrium must eventu- 
ally be reached. 

So that given Force manifested in Time and Space, under 
the forms of Matter and Motion ; and it is demonstrable, a 
priori, that there must go on such transformations as we find 
going on. 

§ 142. See then the accumulation of proofs. The advance 
of human intelligence in establishing laws continually wider 
in generality, raises the presumption that there are all- com- 
prehensive laws. Turning to the facts, we discern a pervad- 
ing uniformity in the general course of things where this 
can be watched, and indications of such uniformity where it 



498 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 

cannot be watched. Considering this uniformity analyti- 
cally, we find it to result from certain simpler uniformities 
in the actions of Force. And these uniformities prove to be 
so many necessary implications of that primordial truth 
which underlies all knowledge — the Persistence of Force. 
The aspect of things raises a presumption ; extended observ- 
ations lead to an induction that fulfils this presumption ; 
this induction is deductively confirmed ; and the laws 
whence it is deduced are corollaries from that datum with- 
out which thought is impossible. 

No higher degree of verification than this can be imagined. 
An induction based on facts so numerous and varied, and 
falling short of universality only where the facts are beyond 
observation, possesses of itself a validity greater than that of 
most scientific inductions. When it is shown that the pro- 
position thus arrived at a posteriori, may also be arrived at 
a priori, starting from certain simple laws of force ; it is 
raised to a level with those generalizations of concrete science 
which are accepted as proved. And when these simple laws 
of force are affiliated upon that ultimate truth which trans- 
cends proof; this dependent proposition takes rank with 
those propositions of abstract science which are our types of 
the greatest conceivable certainty. 

Let no one suppose that any such degree of certainty is 
alleged of the various minor propositions brought in illustra- 
tion of the general argument. Such an assumption would be 
so manifestly absurd, that it seems scarcely needful to dis- 
claim it. But the truth of the doctrine as a whole, is un- 
affected by errors in the details of its presentation. As the 
first principles of mathematics are not invalidated by mis- 
takes made in working out particular equations ; so the first 
principles set forth in the foregoing pages, do not stand or 
fall with each special statement made in them. If it can be 
shown that the Persistence of Force is not a datum of con- 
sciousness ; or if it can be shown that the several laws of 
force above specified are not corollaries from it ; then, indeed, 






SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 499 

it will be shown that the theory of Evolution has not the 
certainty here claimed for it. But nothing short of this can 
invalidate the general conclusions arrived at. 

§ 143. If these conclusions be accepted — if it be admitted 
that they inevitably follow from the truth transcending all 
others in authority — if it be agreed that the phenomena 
going on everywhere are parts of the general process of 
Evolution, save where they are parts of the reverse process 
of Dissolution ; then it must be inferred that all phenomena 
receive their complete interpretation, only when recognized 
as parts of these processes. Regarded from the point of 
view here reached, each change that takes place, is an inci- 
dent in the course of the ever- complicating distribution of 
Matter and Motion, except where it is an incident in the 
course of the reverse distribution ; and each such change is 
fully understood, only when brought under those universal 
principles of change, to which these transformations neces- 
sarily conform. Whence, indeed, it appears to be 
an unavoidable conclusion, that the limit towards which 
Science is advancing, must be reached when these for- 
mulae are made all- comprehensive. Manifestly, the per- 
fection of Science, is a state in which all phenomena are seen 
to be necessary implications of the Persistence of Force. In 
such a state, the dependence of each phenomenon on the 
Persistence of Force, must be proved either directly or indi- 
rectly — either by showing that it is a corollary of the Per- 
sistence of Force, or by showing that it is a corollary from 
some general proposition deduced from the Persistence of 
Force. And since all phenomena are incidents in the re-dis- 
tributions of Matter and Motion ; and since there are certain 
general principles, deducible from the Persistence of Force, 
to which all these re-distributions conform ; it seems infer- 
rable that ultimately all phenomena, where not classed as 
consequences of the Persistence of Force, must be classed as 
consequences of these derivative principles. 



500 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 

§ 144. Of course this development of Science into an 
organized aggregate of direct and indirect deductions from 
the Persistence of Force, can be achieved only in the remote 
future ; and indeed cannot be completely achieved even 
then. Scientific progress, is progress in that equilibration of 
thought and things which we saw is going on, and must con- 
tinue to go on ; but which cannot arrive at perfection in any 
finite period, because it advances more slowly the further 
it advances. But though Science can never be entirely re- 
duced to this form ; and though only at a far distant time 
can it be brought nearly to this form ; yet much may even 
now be done in the way of rude approximation. Those who 
are familiar with the present aspects of Science, must re- 
cognize in them the broken outlines of a general organiza- 
tion. The possibility of arranging the facts already accu- 
mulated, into the order rudely exhibited in the foregoing 
pages, will itself incline them to the belief that our know- 
ledge may be put into a more connected shape than it at 
present has. They will see the probability that many 
now isolated inductions, may be reduced to the form of de- 
ductions from first principles. They will suspect that in- 
ferences drawn from the ultimate laws of force, will lead to 
the investigation and generalization of classes of facts hither- 
to unexamined. And they will feel, not only that a greater 
degree of certainty must be acquired by Science, as fast as its 
propositions are directly or indirectly deduced from the 
highest of all truths ; but also that it must so be rendered a 
more efficient agent of further inquiry. 

To bring scientific knowledge to such degree of logical co- 
herence as is at present possible, is a task to be achieved 
only by the combined efforts of many. No one man can 
possess that encyclopedic information required for rightly 
arranging even the truths already established. But as pro- 
gress is effected by increments — as all organization, begin- 
ning in faint and blurred outlines, is completed by successive 
modifications and additions ; advantage may accrue from an 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 501 

attempt, however rude, to reduce the facts already accumu- 
lated — or rather certain classes of them — to something like 
co-ordination. Such must be the plea for the several volumes 
which are to succeed this. 

§ 145. A few closing words must be said, concerning the 
general bearings of the doctrines that are now to be further 
developed. Before proceeding to interpret the detailed phe- 
nomena of Life, and Mind, and Society, in terms of Matter, 
Motion, and Force, the reader must be reminded in what 
sense the interpretations are to be accepted. In spite of 
everything said at the outset, there are probably some who 
have gained the impression that those most general truths 
set forth in the preceding chapters, together with the truths 
deducible from them, claim to be something more than re- 
lative truths. And, notwithstanding all evidence to the 
contrary, there will probably have arisen in not a few minds, 
the conviction that the solutions which have been given, 
along with those to be derived from them, are essentially 
materialistic. Let none persist in these misconceptions. 

As repeatedly shown in various ways, the deepest truths 
we can reach, are simply statements of the widest uniformities 
in our experience of the relations of Matter, Motion, and 
Force ; and Matter, Motion, and Force are but symbols of 
the Unknown Reality. That Power of which the nature 
remains for ever inconceivable, and to which no limits in 
Time or Space can be imagined, works in us certain effects. 
These effects have certain likenesses of land, the most general 
of which we class together under the names of Matter, 
Motion, and Force ; and between these effects there are 
likenesses of connection, the most constant of which we class 
as laws of the highest certainty. Analysis reduces these 
several kinds of effect to one kind of effect ; and these 
several kinds of uniformity to one kind of uniformity. And 
the highest achievement of Science is the interpretation of 
all orders of phenomena, as differently-conditioned manifesta- 



502 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 



tions of this one kind of effect, under differently-conditioned 
modes of this one kind of uniformity. But when Science 
has done this, it has done nothing more than systematize our 
experience ; and has in no degree extended the limits of our 
experience. We can say no more than before, whether the 
uniformities are as absolutely necessary, as they have become 
to our thought relatively necessary. The utmost possibility 
for us, is an interpretation of the process of things as it pre- 
sents itself to our limited consciousness ; but how this pro- 
cess is related to the actual process, we are unable to conceive, 
much less to know. 

Similarly, it must be remembered that while the connection 
between the phenomenal order and the ontological order is 
for ever inscrutable ; so is the connection between the condi- 
tioned forms of being and the unconditioned form of being, 
for ever inscrutable. The interpretation of all phenomena 
in terms of Matter, Motion, and Force, is nothing more than 
the reduction of our complex symbols of thought, to the 
simplest symbols ; and when the equation has been brought 
to its lowest terms the symbols remain symbols still. Hence 
the reasonings contained in the foregoing pages, afford no 
support to either of the antagonist hypotheses respecting the 
ultimate nature of things. Their implications are no more 
materialistic than they are spiritualistic ; and no more 
spiritualistic than they are materialistic. Any argument 
which is apparently furnished to either hypothesis, is neutral- 
ized by as good an argument furnished to the other. The 
Materialist, seeing it to be a necessary deduction from the 
law of correlation, that what exists in consciousness under 
the form of feeling, is transformable into an equivalent of 
mechanical motion, and by consequence into equivalents of 
all the other forces which matter exhibits ; may consider it 
therefore demonstrated that the phenomena of consciousness 
are material phenomena. But the Spiritualist, setting out 
with the' same data, may argue with equal cogency, that if 
the forces displayed by matter are cognizable only under the 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 503 

shape of those equivalent amounts of consciousness which 
they produce, it is to he inferred that these forces, when 
existing out of consciousness, are of the same intrinsic 
nature as when existing in consciousness ; and that so is 
justified the spiritualistic conception of the external world, 
as consisting of something essentially identical with what 
we call mind. Manifestly, the establishment of correlation 
and equivalence between the forces of the outer and the 
inner worlds, may be used to assimilate either to the other ; 
according as we set out with one or other term. But he 
who rightly interprets the doctrine contained in this work, 
will see that neither of these terms can be taken as ultimate. 
He will see that though the relation of subject and object 
renders necessary to us these antithetical conceptions of 
Spirit and Matter ; the one is no less than the other to be 
regarded as but a sign of the Unknown Reality which under- 
lies both. 



THE END 



INDEX 



Absolute, cannot be known, 69, 87 ; as- 
sumption contained in this, 88 ; indef- 
inate consciousness of, 88, 227, 229; 
its antithesis to the relative, 89 ; some- 
thing more than a negation, 92, 227, 
236 ; personality of, 108. 

Antagonisms of belief, how to regard 
them, 11 ; animosities they generate, 
1 2 ; their coalescence advances truth, 
22. 

Antagonistic forces, origin of the con- 
ception, 287. 

Anthropomorphism, 110; comfort of, 
114. 

Aqueous changes, cause of, 270. 

Arts, evolution of, 194, 208. 

Astronomy, order of discovery in, 135. 

Atheistic theory of the universe, 30. 

B 

Belief of primitive races concerning 
governments, 5. 

Belief, truth the vital element in, 9; 
warrant of, 10 ; how determined, 11 ; 
universality of religions, 13; must 
correspond with character, 119. 

Beliefs erroneous, soul of truth in, 4, 
121 ; method of seeking it, 11 ; truth 
in them unlike its embodiment, 13. 

Binary stars, motion of, 475. 

Boscovich's view of matter, 52, 59. 

C 

Causes of evolution, 219 ; order of in- 
quiry concerning, 220; objections 
considered, 222. 

Causes, single, produce multiplied ef- 
fects, 388. 

Central America, effects of the subsi- 
dence of, 397. 

Chemical action generates all other 
forces, 263. 

Chemistry, order of discovery in, 136. 

Climates, differentiation of, 151. 

Cognition, origin of, 80. 

Completion of mental evolution, 463. 

Conciousness, its duration, 61 ; nature 
of, 63 ; incomprehensible, 65 ; analy- 
sis of, 79, 230 ; definite and indefinite, 
87 ; of space and time, how generat- 
ed, 230 ; reality of, 321 ; of matter, 
how and from what produced, 232 ; 
of motion, 234 ; of force, the source 
of all other consciousness, 235. 



Conditions, cause, structural differences, 
372. 

Conditions essential to evolution, 335. 

Conditioned, the, 75, 109, 236. 

Continuity of motion, 247 ; shown by 
induction, 247; deductive proof of, 
248 ; analysis of the reasoning, 248. 

Conservatism, function of, 120. 

Cooling of the earth, multiplied effects 
of, 394. 

Correlation and equivalence of forces, 
259 ; shown in evolution of solar sys^ 
tern, 268 ; in geologic evolution, 268 
in vegetal and animal life, 271 ; in sen 
sation, 275 ; in muscular motion, 276 
evolution, 277 ; thought, 278 ; mystery 
in, 280; of social and vital phenomena, 
281; deductive proof of, 284; value 
of the inductive inquiry, 285. 

Correspondencies involved in life, 83. 

Correspondence of internal and exter- 
nal forces, 159. 

Creeds not priestly inventions, 14 ; abo- 
riginal, 44; improvement in, 99; suf- 
fering attending change of, 114. 



Darwin, origin of species, 404. 

Death a final organic equilibration, 459 ; 
tendency of all things to, 471 ; must 
it be eternal, 479. 

Discovery of laws, determined by their 
obtrusiveness, 135 ; by their frequen- 
cy, 136; by their complexity, 138; 
by their abstractness, 140. 

Differentiation of science from religion, 
107. 

Differentiation of forces, 389. 

Differentiation and integration, 416. 

Dissolution, changes of motion in, 351. 

Direction of motion, 286 ; law of, 289 ; 
illustrated in nebular condensation, 
290 ; in the phenomena of the solar 
system, 291 ; in the atmosphere, 292 ; 
in water, 293; earth's crust, 294; in 
organic movements, 294; in mental 
phenomena, 298 ; in the movements 
of society, 302; deductive proof of 
the law, 308. 

E 

Earth, evolution of, 152, 181; original 
incandescence of, 394. 

Effects more complex than causes, 389. 

Electricity, transformations of, 262. 

Ether, luminiferous, 59, 



506 



INDEX. 



Ethnology and evolution, 157. 

Evolution of religious ideas, 15. 

Evolution, is it explicable ? 119 ; of solar 
system, 149, 179 ; of the earth, 150 ; 
of life in general, 152, 185 ; of man, 
156; of society, 157, 408; of language, 
162; of the fine arts, 165; poetry, 
music, and dancing, 169; of literature, 
173 ; law of, 148 ; incomplete state- 
ment of law of, 175 ; needful supple- 
ment to, 176 ; a process of integration, 
196; definition of, 216; its universality, 
218; truths necessary to deductive 
proof of, 238, 246, 251 ; qualitative and 
quantitative correlation in, 265; of 
solar system interpreted by laws of 
correlation, 268 ; correlation of the 
forces employed in geologic, 268 ; 
correlation in vital, 271 ; heterogenei- 
ty in, caused by distribution of units, 
335; mobility a condition of, 336; 
chemical constitution a condition of, 
340 ; agitation of particles necessary 
to, 341; changes in motion in, 348; 
how functional complexity arises in, 
352; resolutions of force in, 354; men- 
tal, 377; results from multiplication 
of effects, 390 ; conditions influenc- 
ing, 400 ; has its limit, 440. 

Equilibration, 440; universal tendency 
to, 441 ; illustration of, 442 ; from or- 
ders of, 444 ; illustrated in solar sys- 
tem, 449 ; completion of mental, 463 ; 
of heat, 451 ; manifested in living 
bodies, 456 ; in groups of organisms, 
460 ; nervous, 460 ; moral, 463 ; social, 
465 ; of the stellar movements, 474 ; 
results from persistence of force, 483. 

Experiences, organization of, 22, 230, 
232, 234, 241. 



Faiths, disinclination to change, 114, 

First cause, hypothesis of, 37; cannot 
be classified, 81. 

Flora and fauna, development of, upon 
the earth, 401. 

Force and matter, 59, 287. 

Force, nature of, 58 ; the source of all 
modes of conciousness, 235; itself 
inscrutable, 236; experience of un- 
derived, 235; persistence of, 251; 
grounds of persistence, 252; correla- 
tion and equivalence of forces, 259 ; 
heat as a mode of, 260; dissipation 
of, 440. 

Force, incident, differentiation of, 389. 



G 

Geological evidence, value of, 153. 
Germ, evolution of, 400. 
Glyptodon, case of the, 429. 



Governments, the one truth in all forms 
of, 5; progressive limitation of, 7; 
evolution of, 158. 

H 

Hamilton, Sir Wm., on the conditions 
and limits of knowledge, 74, 87. 

Heat, correlations of, 261. 

Homogeneous, change of the, seen in 
organizable matter, 370. 

Human organism, increase in hetero- 
geneity of, 157. 



Idealism, 225. 

Igneous changes, cause of, 269. 

Impiety of the pious, 110. 

Incident force, unequal action of, 384, 

Indestructibility of matter, 238 ; indue 
tive proof of, 244; signification of, 
245. 

Indefinite conceptions illustrated, 93, 59. 

Indefinite conciousness, 88, 227. 

Infinite, Mansel on the, 77; cannot be 
classified, 81. 

Intellectual progress, philosophy of, 
128. 

Intelligence, dual progress of, 105, 127; 
development of, 376. 

Instability of the homogeneous, cause 
of, 358 ; distribution of siderial sys- 
tem in relation to, 362 ; solar system 
in relation to, 366; earth's crust in 
connexion with, 367 ; organization as 
illustrating, 370 ; mental evolution in 
connexion with, 377; language in 
connexion with, 378 ; social growths, 
380. 

Integration, process of, 196 ; illustrated 
in the evolution of the solar system, 
197; in geologic evolution, 197; in 
development of mammalian embryo, 
198; longitudinal, 199; transverse, 
200 ; seen in the history of science, 
207; in the arts, 208; advantage of 
the term, 214; its true antithesis, 214; 
importance of, in evolution, 215. 

Integration, 417; of the stars, 424; geo- 
logical, 425; organic, 427; mental, 
431; social, 433; results from persist- 
ence of force, 437. 



Kantian theory of space and time, 49, 
229.. 

Knowledge can never satisfy inquiry, 
16 ; how it becomes science, 18 ; ana- 
lysis of, 70 ; relativity of, 68 ; culmi- 
nation of, 106 ; foundation of, 258 ; of 
phenomena only necessary, 86, 231 ; 
of the absolute impossible, 68. 



Language, evolution of, 162. 



INDEX. 



50V 



Law, meaning of, 128, 142; order of its 
discovery, 129; why thought univer- 
sal, 141 ; relation of men of science 
to, 142; why not everywhere estab- 
lished, 143; demonstration of its uni- 
versality, 144 ; discovery of, conforms 
to law, 143. 

Laws in general, 127. 

Law of evolution, 148 ; exemplified in 
development of solar system, 149, 
179; of earth, 150, 181; of life in 
general, 152; of man, 156, 198; of so- 
ciety, 157, 188,201; of language, 162, 
190, 203 ; of the fine arts, 165 ; poetry, 
music, and dancing, 169 ; of literature, 
173 ; incomplete statement of, 175 ; 
needful supplement to, 176. 

Life, abstract definition of, 82. 

Life, definition of Schelling, why inad- 
equate, 212. 

Light, correlations of, 263. 

Literature, evolution of, 174, 210. 

Logic, limits of, 87. 

Loyalty, change in the meaning of, 6. 

M 

Mansel on the Absolute, 39 ; on the lim- 
its and conditions of knowledge, 76, 
87. 

Man, evolution of, 146, 198. 

Mammalian development, process of, 
182, 198. 

Magnetism produces other forces, 262. 

Materialism, 222, 501. 

Matter and force, 59, 287. 

Matter, divisibility of, 50; solidity of, 
51 ; Newton's view of, 52, 59 ; incom- 
presensibility of, 50, 241 ; how the 
idea of, is generated, 232 ; relation 
of, to force, 233, 235 ; indestructibility 
of, 228. 

Mental equilibrations, 461. 

Mental force, correlation of, 274 ; equiv- 
alence of, 280. 

Mental revolutions, lacerations accom- 
panying, 115. 

Metaphysics, effect of study of, 224. 

Method of seeking truth in erroneous 
beliefs, 11. 

Moral equilibration, 463. 

Motion, illusive ideas of, 55 ; absolute, 
56; transfer of, 56; incomprehen- 
sibility of, 54 ; analysis of the con- 
sciousness of, 234 ; continuity of, 246 ; 
progress of discovery concerning, 
247 ; but a continuation of force, 250 ; 
preexists as force, 259 ; result of, ar- 
rested, 260 ; law of direction of, 289 ; 
all rhythmical, 316; integration of, 
348. 

Moving equilibrium, 443. 

Multiplication of effects, 388 ; illustrat- 
ed in cooling of the earth, 394; in 
organic evolution, 398; in the earth's 



flora and fauna, 401 ; in sensation and 
intelligence, 405 ; emotions, 407 ; in 
society, 408 ; derived from persist- 
ence of force, 413. 
Music and dancing, evolution of, 169, 
210. 

N 
Natural selection, 404. 
"Nature and God," extract from, 111. 
Nebular hypothesis, 149. 
Nebulous condition, production of, 478. 
Newton's view of matter, 52, 59. 

O 

Objective reality, belief in, 93, 224. 

Opinions, valuation of, 4 ; why they may 
be fearlessly uttered, 123. 

Organic evolution, in what does it con- 
sist? 148, 199; correlation of forces 
in, 271 ; illustrates the law of the di- 
rection of motion, 294. 

Organic effects, multiplication of, 399. 

Organism, equilibration of, 456. 

Organic morality, 118. 



Painting, evolution of, 165, 209. 

Pantheism, 32. 

Persistence our test of reality, 226. 

Persistence of force, 251 ; why import- 
ant, 252; an ultimate truth, 254; 
what is meant by, 255 ; the cause of 
equilibration, 483. 

Phenomena, unformities of relation 
among, 128; metaphysical use of the 
word, 224. 

Physics, order of discovery in, 135. 

Poetry, evolution of, 169. 

Progress, meaning of, 146 ; why a bet- 
ter term is needed, 147. 

Progression of religious ideas, 44. 

Progressive ideas concerning govern- 
ment, 5. 

Physical development, 187. 



Races, divergence of, 405. 

Reality, meaning of, 225; relative and 
absolute, 231, 233, 236. 

Reconciliation, 98. 

Relative and absolute, antithesis of, 89. 

Relativity of all knowledge, 68; illus- 
tration of, 69; Sir Win. Hamilton's 
view of, 74; Mansel' s view of, 76. 

Religious belief, its universality, 13; 
truth the basis of all, 13 ; not acci- 
dental, 14; its source, 14; testimony 
of philology concerning, 14; why it 
cannot be thought groundless, 13 
why we must seek its origin and func 
tion, 15 ; why we must respect it, 16 
the truth common to all, 44; must 



508 



INDEX. 



fit those who live under it, 118 ; when 
its change produces violence, 119. 

Religion, how irreligeous, 101 ; its debt 
to science, 102; differentiation from 
science, 106 ; how we must regard its 
imperfections, 116; two theories of 
its origin, 15. 

Religious prejudice against science, 17. 

Religious progress, in what has it con- 
sisted, 99. 

Religion and science, 3 ; source and ex- 
tent of their antagonism, 11 ; imper- 
fect development of, 10; reason of 
their animosity, 12; must harmonize, 
21 ; kind of truth common to both, 
23 ; they are correlatives, 107 ; agree- 
ment of, 255. 

Revolving spheroid, production of, 392. 

Rhythm of motion, 313 ; cause of, 317 ; 
rhythm of celestial motions, 319 ; of 
geological processes, 322 ; of meteo- 
rological phenomena, 321 ; of the phe- 
nomena of life, 324; of conscious- 
ness, 327 ; seen in social movements, 
330 ; in intellectual progress, 332. 

S 

Schelling's definition of life, examina- 
tion of, 212. 

Science and nescience, 16, 236, 257. 

Science, defence of, 17; definition of, 
18 ; an outgrowth of common knowl- 
edge, 18 ; why regarded with alarm, 
19 ; how unscientific, 104 ; aids relig- 
ion, 102; differentiation from relig- 
ion, 106 ; order of discovery in, 133, 
192; illustrations, 134; advance of, 
207. 

Science and religion, imperfect devel- 
opment of, 105; they are correla- 
tives, 107. 

Sculpture, evolution of, 165. 

Seggregative processes, 417 ; geological, 
425 ; organic, 427 ; mental, 431 ; so- 
cial, 433 ; results from persistence of 
force, 437. 

Sensations and physical forces, 275; 
correlated with muscular motion, 276. 

Siderial system and evolution, 362. 

Social evolution, 158, 188. 

Social forces, correlation with physical, 
281 ; action of, 469. 

Society, development of, 408. 

Solar radiations the source of physical 
forces, 270 ; of vital and social forces, 
282. 

Solar system, evolution of, 149, 179 ; di- 
rection of motion in, how determined, 
291 ; evolution of, interpreted by laws 



of correlation, 268 ; energies of, 452 ; 

tendency of the motions in, 453. 
Scepticism, 224. 

Space and time, are they comprehensi- 
ble, 47. 
Space, transcendental view of, 229; 

how the conception is generated, 229 ; 

analysis of, 230 ; reality of, 231. 
Stars, progressive concentration of, 

476 ; probable collision of, 477. 
Sun's rays, influence of, 454. 
Subsidence of land, multiplied effects 

of, 397. 
Symbolic conceptions, nature of, 26; 

when illusive, 29, 242. 



Theistic hypothesis of the universe, 33. 

Thought, nature of, 82, 88; in what it 
consists, 228 ; form of, 229 ; cause of 
uniformities of, 241; restriction of 
the term, 242; character of undisci- 
plined, 247. 

Time, transcendental view of, 229 ; how 
the conception is generated, 229. 

Time and space, are they comprehensi- 
ble, 47, 228. 

Tidal wave, 454. 

Toleration, meaning of, 120; reasons 
for, 121. 

Truth contained in erroneous beliefs, 3; 
statement of the one present in ali 
creeds, 44; the deepest must be in- 
comprehensible, 73,254; a priori, how 
it arises, 241, 258. 

U 

Unformities, order of generalization, 
129 ; earliest known, 131 ; of experi- 
ence, produce uniformities of thought, 
241 ; of relation, how the conscious- 
ness of them arises, 127 ; what deter- 
mines their recognition, 129. 

Unknowable, protest against the accept- 
ance of, 113. 

Unknown cause, force a manifestation 
of, 255. 

Universe, origin of, 30 ; as self-existent, 
30; as self-created, 32; as created by 
external agency, 33 ; nature of the, 
36. 

Ultimate religious ideas, 25, 256. 

Ultimate scientific ideas, 47, 224. 



Yital forces, correlation of, 271. 

W 

Watch, figure of the, 111. 



PEOSPEOTTJS 



FOB THE PUBLICATION OF A 



NEW SYSTEM OF PHILOSOPHY, 



BY 



HERBERT SPENQER. 



A SYSTEM OF PHILOSOPHY. 

Me. Heebeet Spencee proposes to issue in periodical parts a 
connected series of works which he has for several years been 
preparing. Some conception of the general aim and scope of 
this series may be gathered from the following Programme. 

PIKST PEINCIPLES. 

Past I. The Unknowable. — Carrying a step further the doctrine 
put into shape by Hamilton and Mansel ; pointing out the various direc- 
tions in which Science leads to the same conclusions ; and showing 
that in this united belief in an Absolute that transcends not only human 
knowledge but human conception, lies the only possible reconciliation 
of Science and Religion. 

Paet II. Laws of the Knowable. — A statement of the ultimate 
principles discernible throughout all manifestations of the Absolute — 
those highest generalizations now being disclosed by Science which are 
severally true not of one class of phenomena but of all classes of pheno- 
mena; and which are thus the keys to all classes of phenomena.* 

* One of these generalizations is that currently known as "the Conservation of 
Force ; " a second may be gathered from a published essay on " Progress : its Law 
and Cause ; " a third is indicated in a paper on " Transcendental Physiology ; " 
and there are several others. 



11 PROSPECTUS. 

\_In logical order should here come the application of these First Princi- 
ples to Inorganic Nature. But this great division it is proposed to pass 
over : partly because, even without it, the scheme is too extensive ; and 
partly because the interpretation of Organic Nature after the proposed 
method, is of more immediate importance. The second work of the series 
ivill therefore be — ] 



THE PKINCIPLES OF BIOLOGY. 
Vol. I. 

Paut I. The Data of Biology. — Including those general truths of 
Physics and Chemistry with which rational Biology must set out. 

II. The Inductions or Biology. — A statement of the leading gener- 
alizations which Naturalists, Physiologists, and Comparative Anatomists, 
have established. 

III. The Evolution of Life. — Concerning the speculation com- 
monly known as " The Development Hypothesis " — its a priori and d 
posteriori evidences. 

Vol. II. 

IV. Morphological Development. — Pointing out the relations that 
are everywhere traceable between organic forms and the average of the 
various forces to which they are subject; and seeking in the cumulative 
effects of such forces a theory of the forms. 

V. Physiological Development. — The progressive differentiation of 
functions similarly traced; and similarly interpreted as consequent upon 
the exposure of different parts of organisms to different sets of conditions. 

VI. The Law's of Multiplication. — Generalizations respecting the 
rates of reproduction of the various classes of plants and animals ; fol- 
lowed by an attempt to show the dependence of these variations upon 
certain necessary causes.* 

* The ideas to be developed in the second volume of the Principles of Biology 
the writer has already briefly expressed in sundry Review- Articles. Part IV. 
will work out a doctrine suggested in a paper on " The Laws of Organic Form," 
published in the Medico-Chirurgical Review for January, 1859. The germ of Part 
V. is contained in the essay on t( Transcendental Physiology : " See Essays, pp. 
280-90. And in Part VI. will be unfolded certain views crudely expressed in a 
" Theory of Population," published in the Westminster Review for April, 1852. 



PROSPECTUS. Ill 

THE PEINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY. 

Vol. I. 

Part I. The Data of Psychology. — Treating of the general con- 
nexions of Mind and Life and their relations to other modes of the 
Unknowable. 

II. The Inductions of Psychology. — A digest of such generaliza- 
tions respecting mental phenomena as have already been empirically 
established. 

III. General Synthesis. — A republication, with additional chapters, 
of the same part in the already-published Principles of Psychology. 

IV. Special Synthesis. — A republication, with extensive revisions 
and additions, of the same part, &c. &c. 

V. Physical Synthesis. — An attempt to show the manner in which 
the succession of states of consciousness conforms to a certain funda- 
mental law of nervous action that follows from the First Principles laid 
down at the outset. 

Vol. II. 

VI. Special Analysis. — As at present published, but further elabor- 
ated by some additional chapters. 

VII. General Analysis. — As at present published, with several 
explanations and additions. 

VIII. Corollaries. — Consisting in part of a number of derivative 
principles which form a necessary introduction to Sociology.* 

THE PEINCIPLES OE SOCIOLOGY. 
Vol. I. 

Part I. The Data of Sociology.— A statement of the several sets 
of factors entering into social phenomena — human ideas and feelings 
considered in their necessary order of evolution ; surrounding natural 
conditions; and those ever complicating conditions to which Society 
itself gives origin. 

II. The Inductions of Sociology.— General facts, structural and 
functional, as gathered from a survey of Societies and their changes : in 

* Respecting the several additions to be made to the Principles of Psychology, 
it seems needful only to say that Part V. is the unwritten division named in the 
preface to that work — a division of which the germ is contained in a note on page 
544, and of which the scope has since been more definitely stated in a paper in 
the Medico-Chirurgical Review for Jan. 1859. 



IV PROSPECTUS. 

other words, the empirical generalizations that are arrived at by com- 
paring different societies, and successive phases of the same society. 

III. Political Organization. — The evolution of governments, gene- 
ral and local, as determined by natural causes ; their several types and 
metamorphoses ; their increasing complexity and specialization ; and the 
progressive limitation of their functions. 



Vol. II. 

IV. Ecclesiastical Organization.— Tracing- the differentiation of 
religious government from secular ; its successive complications and the 
multiplication of sects ; the growth and continued modification of re- 
ligious ideas, as caused by advancing knowledge and changing moral 
character ; and the gradual reconciliation of these ideas with the truths 
of abstract science. 

V. Ceremonial Organization. — The natural history of that third 
kind of government which, having a common root with the others, and 
slowly becoming separate from and supplementary to them, serves to 
regulate the minor actions of life. 

VI. Industrial Organization. — The development of productive and 
distributive agencies, considered, like the foregoing, in its necessary 
causes : comprehending not only the progressive division of labour, and 
the increasing complexity of each industrial agency, but also the suc- 
cessive forms of industrial government as passing through like phases 
with political government. 

Vol. III. 

VII. Lingual Progress. — The evolution of Languages regarded as 
a psychological process determined by social conditions. 

VIII. Intellectual Progress. — Treated from the same point of 
view : including the growth of classifications ; the evolution of science 
out of common knowledge ; the advance from qualitive to quantative 
prevision, from the indefinite to the definite, and from the concrete to 
the abstract. 

IX. ./Esthetic Progress. — The Fine Arts similarly dealt with : 
tracing their gradual differentiation from primitive institutions and from 
each other; their increasing varieties of development; and their ad- 
vance in reality of expression and superiority of aim. 

X. Moral Progress. — Exhibiting the genesis of the slow emotional 
modifications which human nature undergoes in its adaptation to the 
social state. 



PROSPECTUS. V 

XI. The Consensus, — Treating of the necessary interdependence of 
structures and of functions in each type of society, and in the successive 
phases of social development.* 

THE PRINCIPLES OF MORALITY. 
Vol. I. 

Part I. The Data of Morality.— Generalizations furnished by 
Biology, Psychology and Sociology, which underlie a true theory of 
right living : in other words, the elements of that equilibrium between 
constitution and conditions of existence, which is at once the moral 
ideal and the limit towards which we are progressing. 

II. The Inductions of Morality. — Those empirically-established 
rules of human action which are registered as essential laws by all 
civilized nations : that is to say — the generalizations of expediency. 

III. Personal Morals. — The principles of private conduct — physical, 
intellectual, moral and religious — that follow from the conditions to 
complete individual life: or, what is the same thing — those modes of 
private action which must result from the eventual equilibration of in- 
ternal desires and external needs. 

Yol. II. 

IV. Justice. — The mutual limitations of men's actions necessitated 
by their co-existence as units of a society — limitations, the perfect 
observance of which constitutes that state of equilibrium forming the 
goal of political progress. 

V. Negative Beneficence. — Those secondary limitations, similarly 
necessitated, which, though less important and not cognizable by law, 
are yet requisite to prevent mutual destruction of happiness in various 
indirect ways : in other words — those minor self-restraints dictated by 
what may be called passive sympathy. 

* Of this treatise on Sociology a few small fragments may be found in already- 
published essays. Some of the ideas to be developed in Part II. are indicated in 
an article on u The Social Organism," contained in the last number of the West- 
minster Review ; those which Part V. will work out, may be gathered from the 
first half of a paper written some years since on "Manners and Fashion ; " of Part 
VIII. the germs are contained in an article on the " Genesis of Science ;" two 
papers on " The'Origin and Function of Music" and. " The Philosophy of Style," 
contain some ideas to be embodied in Part IX. ; and from a criticism of Mr. Bain's 
work on " The Emotions and the "V^l," in the last number of the Medico- Chirur- 
gical Review, the central idea to be developed in Part X. may be inferred. 



VI PROSPECTUS. 

VI. Positive Beneficence. — Comprehending all modes of conduct, 
dictated by active sympathy, which imply pleasure in giving pleasure- 
modes of conduct that social adaptation has induced and must render 
ever more general ; and which, in becoming universal, must fill to the 
full the possible measure of human happiness.* 

In anticipation of the obvious criticism that the scheme here 
sketched out is too extensive, it may be remarked that an ex- 
haustive treatment of each topic is not intended ; but simply the 
establishment of principles, with such illustrations as are needed 
to make their bearings fully understood. It may also be pointed 
out that, besides minor fragments, one large division {The JPrinci- 
pies of JBsycliology) is already, in great part, executed. And a 
further reply is, that impossible though it may prove to execute 
the whole, yet nothing can be said against an attempt to set forth 
the Eirst Principles and to carry their applications as far as cir- 
cumstances permit. 

The price per Number to be half-a-crown ; that is to say, the 
four Numbers yearly issued to be severally delivered, post free, 
to all annual subscribers of Ten Shillings.* 

* Part IV. of the Principles of Morality will be co-extensive (though not iden- 
tical) with the first half of the writer's Social Statics. 



This Programme I have thought well to reprint for two 
reasons : — the one being that readers may, from time to 
time, be able to ascertain what topics are next to be dealt 
with ; the other being that an outline of the scheme may- 
remain , in case it should never be completed. 

The successive instalments of wliich this volume consists, 
were issued to the subscribers at the following dates : — Part 
I. (pp. 1—80) in October, 1860 ; Part II. (pp. 81—176) in 
January, 1861 ; Part III. (pp. 177—256) in April, 1861 ; 
Part IV. (pp. 257—334) in October, 1861 ; Part V. (pp. 
335_416) in March, 1862 ; and Part VI. (pp. 417—504) 
in June, 1862. 

London, Jime 5th, 1862. 

* In America, of two dollars. 



OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 



Mr. Spencer's philosophical series is published by D. Appleton 
& Co., New York, in quarterly parts (80 to 100 pages each), by 
subscription, at two dollars a year. " First Principles" is issued 
in one volume, and four parts of Biology have appeared. "We 
subjoin some notices of his philosophy from American and English 
reviews : 

From the National Quarterly Review (American). 
Comte thus founded social science, and opened a path for future discoverers ; 
but he did not perceive, any more than previous inquirers, the fundamental law 
of human evolution. It was reserved for Herbert Spencer to discover this all- 
comprehensive law which is found to explain alike all the phenomena of man's 
history and all those of external nature. This sublime discovery, that the uni- 
verse is in a continuous process of evolution from the homogeneous to the hete- 
rogeneous, with which only Newton's law of gravitation is at all worthy to be 
compared, underlies not only physics, but also history. It reveals the law to 
which social changes conform. 

From the Christian Fxaminer. 
Reverent and bold — reverent for truth, though not for the forms of truth, and 
not for much that we hold true — bold in th^e destruction of error, though with- 
out that joy in destruction which often claims the name of boldness; — these 
works are interesting in themselves and in their relation to the current thought 
of the time. They seem at first sight to form the turning point in the positive 
philosophy, but closer examination shows us that it is only a new and marked 
stage in a regular growth. It is the positive philosophy reaching the higher 
relations of our being, and establishing what before it ignored because it had not 
reached, and by ignoring seemed to deny. This system formerly excluded the- 
ology and psychology. In the works of Herbert Spencer we have the rudiments 
of a positive theology and an immense step toward the perfection of the science 
of psychology. * * * Such is a brief and meagre sketch of a discussion 
which we would commend to be followed in detail by every mind interested in 
theological studies. Herbert Spencer comes in good faith from what has been 
so long a hostile camp, bringing a flag of truce and presenting terms of agree- 
ment meant to be honorable to both parties : let us give him a candid hearing. 



vru opinions of the peess. 

* * * In conclusion, we would remark that the work of Herbert Spencer re- 
ferred to (First Principles) is not mainly theological, but will present the latest 
and broadest generalizations of science, and we would commend to our readers 
this author, too little known among us, as at once one of the clearest of teachers 
and one of the wisest and most honorable of opponents. 

From the New Fngldhder. 

Though we find here some unwarranted assumptions, as well as some grave 
omissions, yet this part (Laws of the Knowable) may be considered, upon the 
whole, as a fine specimen of scientific reasoning. Considerable space is devoted 
to the "Law of Evolution," the discovery of which is the author's chief claim to 
originality, and certainly evinces great power of generalization. To quote the 
abstract definition without a full statement of the inductions from which it is 
derived would convey no fair impression of the breadth and strength of the 
thought which it epitomizes. Of Mr. Spencer's general characteristics as a wri- 
ter, we may observe that his style is marked by great purity, clearness, and 
force ; though it is somewhat diffuse, and the abstract nature of some of his top- 
ics occasionally renders his thought difficult of apprehension. His treatment of 
his subjects is generally thorough and sometimes exhaustive; his arguments are 
always ingenious if not always convincing ; his illustrations are drawn from al- 
most every accessible field of human knowledge, and his method of "putting 
things" is such as to make the most of his materials. He is undoubtedly enti- 
tled to a high rank among the speculative and philosophic writers of the present 
day. * * * 

In Mr. Spencer we have the example of a positivist, who does not treat the 
subject of religion with supercilious neglect, and who illustrates by his own 
method of reasoning upon the highest objects of human thought, the value of 
those metaphysical studies which it is so much the fashion of his school to de- 
cry. For both these reasons the volume, which we now propose to examine, 
deserves the careful attention of the theologian who desires to know what one 
of the strongest thinkers of his school, commonly thought atheistic in its tenden- 
cies, can say in behalf of our ultimate religious ideas. For if we mistake not, in 
spite of the very negative character of his own results, he has furnished some 
strong arguments for the doctrine of a positive Christian theology. "We shall be 
mistaken if we expect to find him carelessly passing these matters by (religious 
faith and theological science) as in all respects beyond knowledge and of no 
practical concern. On the contrary, he gives them profound attention, and 
arrives at conclusions in regard to them which even the Christian theologian 
must allow to contain a large measure of truth. "While showing the unsearchable 
nature of the ultimate facts on which religion depends, he demonstrates their 
real existence and their great importance. * * * In answering these ques- 
tions Mr. Spencer has, we think, arrived nearer to a true philosophy than either 
Hamilton or Mansel. At least he has indicated in a more satisfactory manner 
than they have done, the positive datum of consciousness that the unconditioned, 
though inscrutable, exists. It may be said that Mr. Spencer is not chargeable 
with excluding God from the universe, or denying all revelation of Him in His 
works, since he earnestly defends the truth that an inscrutable power is shown 
to exist. "We certainly would not charge him with theoretical atheism, holding 
as he does this ultimate religious idea. 



OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. ix 

From the North American Beview. 
The law of organic development announced in the early part of the present 
century, by Goethe, Schilling, and Von Baer, and vaguely expressed in the for- 
mula, that "evolution is always from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous, and 
from the simple to the complex," has recently been extended by Herbert Spencer 
so as to include all phenomena whatsoever. He has shown that this law of evo- 
lution is the law of all evolution. Whether it be in the development of the earth 
or of life upon its surface, in the development of Society, of government, of man- 
ufactures, of commerce, of language, literature, science, and art, this same ad- 
vance from the simple to the complex, through successive differentiations, holds 
uniformly. The stupendous induction from all classes of phenomena by which Mr. 
Spencer proceeds to establish and illustrate his theorem cannot be given here. 

From the Christian Spectator (English). 
Mr. Spencer claims for his view that it is not only a religious position, but 
preeminently the religious position ; and we are most thoroughly disposed to 
agree with him, though we think he does not appreciate the force of his own 
argument, nor fully understand his own words. For let us now attempt to real- 
ize the meaning of this fact, of which Mr. Spencer and his compeers have put us 
in possession ; let us endeavour to see whether its bearings are really favorable 
or adverse to religion. They are put forward indeed avowedly as adverse to any 
other religion than a mere reverential acquiescence in ignorance concerning all 
that truly exists ; but it appears to us that this supposed opposition to religion 
arises from the fact that the doctrine itself is so profoundly, so intensely, so 
overwhelmingly religious, nay, so utterly and entirely Christian, that its true 
meaning could not be seen for very glory. Like Moses, when he came down 
from the Mount, this positive philosophy comes with a veil over its face, that its 
too divine radiance may be hidden for a time. This is Science that has been 
conversing with God, and brings in her hand His law written on tables of stone. 

. From the Reader. 
To answer the question of the likelihood of the permanence of Mr. Mill's phi- 
losophic reign, * * * we should have to take account, among other things, 
of the differences from Mr. Mill already shown by the extraordinarily able and 
peculiarly original thinker whose name we have associated with Mr. Mill's at the 
head of this article. We may take occasion, at another time, to call attention to 
these speculations of Mr. Herbert Spencer, whose works in the mean time, and 
especially that new one whose title we have cited, we recommend to all those 
select readers whose appreciation of masterly exposition, and great reach and 
boldness of generalization, does not depend on their mere disposition to agree 
with the doctrines propounded. 

From the British Quarterly Beview. 
Complete in itself, it is at the same time but a part of a whole, which, if it 
should be constructed in proportion, will be ten times as great. For these First 
Principles are merely the foundation of a system of philosophy, bolder, more 
elaborate and comprehensive, perhaps, than any other which has been hitherto 
designed in England. * * * Widely as it will be seen we differ from the 
author on some points, we very sincerely hope he may succeed in accomplishing 
the bold and magnificent project he has mapped out. 



OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 



From the Comhill 

Our " Survey," superficial as it is, must include at least the mention of a 
work so lofty in aim, and so remarkable in execution as«the system of Philosophy 
which Mr. Herbert Spencer is issuing to subscribers. * * * In spite of all 
dissidence respecting the conclusions, the serious reader will applaud the pro- 
found earnestness and thoroughness with which these conclusions are advo- 
cated ; the universal scientific knowledge brought to bear on them by way of 
illustration, and the acute and subtle thinking displayed in every chapter. 

From the Parthenon. 
By these books he has wedged his way into fame in a manner distinctly ori- 
ginal, and curiously marked. * * * There is a peculiar charm in this au- 
thor's style, in that it sacrifices to no common taste, while at the same time it 
makes the most abstruse questions intelligible. * * * The book, if it is to 
be noticed with the slightest degree of fairness, requires to be read and re-read, 
to be studied apart from itself and with itself. For whatever may be its ultimate 
fate — although as the ages go on it shall become but as the lispings of a little 
child, a little more educated than other lisping children of the same time — this 
is certain, that, as a book addressed to the present, it lifts the mind far above 
the ordinary range of thought, suggests new associations, arranges chaotic pic- 
tures, strikes often a broad harmony, and even moves the heart by an intellec- 
tual struggle as passionless as fate, but as irresistible aa time. 

From the Critic. 
Mr. Spencer is the foremost mind of the only philosophical school in England 
which has arrived at a consistent scheme. * * * Beyond this school we en- 
counter an indolent chaotic eclecticism. Mr. Spencer claims the respect due to 
distinct and daring individuality ; others are echoes or slaves. Mr. Spencer may 
be a usurper, but he has the voice and gesture of a king. 

From the Medico- Chirurgical Review. 
Mr. Spencer is equally remarkable for his search after first principles ; for his 
acute attempts to decompose mental phenomena into their primary elements ; 
and for his broad generalizations of mental activity, viewed in connection with 
nature, instinct, and all the analogies presented by life in its universal aspects. 

Translated from an able and elaborate article in the Revue des Deux Mbndcs of 
Feb. 15, 1864. 

— The great work on philosophy, by Herbert Spencer, whom I would willingly 
style the last of English metaphysicians. In the midst of universal indifference, 
Mr. Spencer remained steadily attached to his philosophical studies, displaying 
all that heroic courage and that rare independence indispensable to those who 
devote themselves to toilsome researches which at best only recompense the 
student with a few obscure and isolated suffrages. 

If Mr. Spencer, with his talent, his fertility of genius, and the almost encyclo- 
pedic variety of knowledge of which his writings furnish the proof, had chosen 
to follow the beaten path, nothing would have been more easy than for him to 
secure all those honors of which English society is so prodigal to those who serve 
her as she wishes to be served. He preferred, however, with a noble and touch- 
ing self-denial, to put up with poverty— and what is still more difficult, with ob- 



OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. XI 

scurity. But he deserves more than vain assurances of sympathy : we must not 
merely admire his fidelity to profitless studies ; his work itself merits the indi- 
vidual attention of all friends of philosophy. 

An impression prevails with many that Mr. Spencer belongs 
to the positive school of M. Auguste Comte. This is an entire 
misapprehension ; but the position having been assumed by sev- 
eral of his reviewers, he repels the charge in the following letter, 
which appeared in the New Englander for January, 1864 : 

To tlie Editor of the New Englander : 

Sir : — While recognizing the appreciative tone and general candour of the 
article in your last number, entitled "Herbert Spencer on Ultimate Religious 
Ideas," allow me to point out one error which pervades it. The writer correctly 
represents the leading positions of my argument, but he inadvertently conveys 
a wrong impression respecting my tendencies and sympathies. He says of me, 
"the spirit of his philosophy is evidently that of the so-called positive method 
which has now many partial disciples, as well as many zealous adherents among 
the thinkers of England." Further on I am tacitly classed with "the English 
admirers and disciples of the great Positivist;" and it is presently added that 
"in Mr. Spencer we have an example of a positivist, who does not treat the sub- 
ject of religion with supercilious neglect." Here and throughout, the implica- 
tion is that I am a follower of Comte. This is a mistake. That M. Comte has 
given a general exposition of the doctrine and method elaborated by science, 
and has applied to it a name which has obtained a certain currency, is true. 
But it is not true that the holders of this doctrine and followers of this method 
are disciples of M. Comte. Neither their modes of inquiry nor their views con- 
cerning human knowledge in its nature and limits are appreciably different from 
what they were before. If they are Positivists it is in the sense that all men of 
science have been more or less consistently Positivists ; and the applicability of 
M. Comte' s title to them no more makes them his disciples than does its appli- 
cability to the men of science who lived and died before M. Comte wrote, make 
them his disciples. 

My own attitude toward M. Comte and his partial adherents has been all 
along that of antagonism. In an essay on the " Genesis of Science," published 
in 1854, and republished with other essays in 1857, I have endeavoured to show 
that his theory of the logical dependence and historical development of the 
sciences is untrue. I have still among my papers the memoranda of a second 
review (for which I failed to obtain a place), the purpose of which was to_ show 
the untenableness of his theory of intellectual progress. The only doctrine of 
importance in which I agree with him — the relativity of all knowledge— is one 
common to him and sundry other thinkers of earlier date ; and even this I hold 
in a different sense from that in which he held it. But on all points that are dis- 
tinctive of his philosophy, I differ from him. I deny his Hierarchy of the Sci- 
ences. I regard his division of intellectual progress into the three phases, theo- 
logical, metaphysical, and positive, as superficial. I reject utterly his Religion 
of Humanity. And his ideal of society I hold in detestation. Some of his minor 
views I accept ; some of his incidental remarks seem to me to be profound, but 
from every thing which distinguishes Comteism as a system, I dissent entirely. 
The only influence on my own course of thought which I can trace toM. Comte' s 
writings, is the influence that results from meeting with antagonistic opinions 
definitely expressed. 

Such being my position, you will, I think, see that by classing me as a Posi- 
tivist, and tacitly including me among the English admirers and disciples of 
Comte, your reviewer unintentionally misrepresents me. I am quite ready to 
bear the odium attaching to opinions which I do hold ; but I object to have added 
the odium attaching to opinions which I do not hold. If, by publishing this let- 
ter in your forthcoming number, you will allow me to set myself right with the 
American public on this matter, you will greatly oblige me. I am, Sir, your 
obedient servant, Herbert Spencer. 



Xll OPINIONS OF THE PEESS. 

"We take the liberty of making an extract from a private letter 

of Mr. Spencer, which contains some further observations in the 

same connection : 

" There appears to have got abroad in the United States a very erroneous 
impression respecting the influence of Comte's writings in England. I suppose 
that the currency obtained by the words. 'Positivism' and 'Positivist,' is to 
blame for this. Comte having designated by the term Positive Philosophy all 
that body of definitely-established knowledge which men of science have been 
gradually organizing into a coherent body of doctrine, and having habitually 
placed this in opposition to the incoherent body of doctrine defended by theolo- 
gians, it has become the habit of the theological party to think of the antagonist 
scientific party under this title of Positivists applied to them by Comte. And 
thus, from the habit of calling them Positivists there has grown up the assump- 
tion that they call themselves Positivists, and that they are the disciples of 
Comte. The truth is that Comte and his doctrines receive here scarcely any at- 
tention. I know something of the scientific world in England, and I cannot 
name a single man of science who acknowledges himself a follower of Comte, or 
accepts the title of Positivist. Lest, however, there should be some such who 
were unknown to me, I have recently made inquiries into the matter. To Pro- 
fessor Tyndall I put the question whether Comte had exerted any appreciable 
influence on his own course of thought: and he replied, ' So far as I know, my 
own course of thought would have been exaetly the same had Comte never ex- 
isted.' I then asked, ' Do you know any man of science whose views have been 
affected by Comte's writings?' and his answer was: 'His influence on scientific 
thought in England is absolutely mil.' To the same questions Prof. Huxley re- 
turned, in other words, the same answers. Professors Huxley and Tyndall, 
being leaders in their respective , departments, and being also men of general 
culture and philosophic insight, I think that joining their impressions with my 
own, I am justified in saying that the scientific world of England is wholly unin- 
fluenced by Comte. Such small influence as he has had here has been on some 
literary men and historians — men who were attracted by the grand achieve- 
ments of science, who were charmed by the plausible system of scientific gen- 
eralizations put forth by Comte, with the usual French regard for symmetry and 
disregard for fact, and who were, from their want of scientific training, unable 
to detect the essential fallaciousness of his system. Of these the most notable 
example was the late Mr. Buckle. Besides him, I can name but seven men who 
have been in any appreciable degree influenced by Comte ; and of these, four, if 
not five, are scarcely known to the public." 




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